Life As A Green Bean

Snowbird

2012-01-23T10:02:00.000-06:00

We were all so excited when Mom decided to come for a visit last weekend! She arrived Saturday around lunchtime, and Michelle and her clan came up to enjoy the afternoon at our house visiting and being silly. We treated Mom to her annual Hobby Lobby fix, then had a simple dinner at home.

Sunday at church Ian Fair was a guest speaker at North Davis, which was a nice treat (we are starting a series on Revelation, and he wrote the book on which we are basing the series). Michelle (et al) met us at church, then we all headed to Mercado Juarez for a yummy lunch... and much giggling. Poor Andrew.

The rest of Sunday was pretty low-key. A trip to a very understocked Goodwill, some Wii playing, and an occasional walk around the cul de sac looking at the HGTV happenings.

Monday while we waited for Ally to be done with her musical practice in the morning, Mom and I went Squinkies shopping at Target (she had been Squinkies-deprived and we couldn't let that continue!). At lunchtime I took Melaina over to our neighbor Amy's house for Katie's 6th birthday party, and while there, the HGTV people were all over her yard, filming, setting pavestones, and just generally being busy. We had a front-row seat in Amy's front window; I briefly considered mooning them through the window as they filmed, but after much thought, I decided against it. (I can hear the cheers loud and clear.)

Once the party was over and Michelle arrived, we girls took off for Sam Moon, the huge bag/jewelry/accessories store. Avalie and I were able to control ourselves pretty well, so the damage was not too bad. That girl sure likes to shop though!

It was nearly dinnertime before I finally remembered that Livian and Avalie had gymnastics practice that evening. I normally would have let them skip because of having company, but they had a performance Saturday and really needed to be there. So dinner was a bit rushed. We enjoyed a last-minute meal at Double Dave's pizza buffet, and the girls made it to gymnastics in plenty of time. Everyone came along to watch a bit of their practice, but since the team was finalizing its performance, they did a lot of standing around getting instruction and didn't do much tumbling. That was disappointing for us, but I know the girls were so excited that everyone came to watch them anyway.

I was glad that Mom and Michelle got to see some of the craziness all this HGTV stuff is causing on our street. The week before had been a nightmare, but by the weekend things were much calmer. Monday the work started back up again, but it was nothing like the previous week, thankfully! Now things are wrapping up; today they are planting stuff in the yards and finalizing everything for the big reveal tomorrow. This afternoon HGTV is throwing a block party for us neighbors, which I'm assuming will be for filming our reactions to the makeovers, and then Friday they are throwing a bigger party for friends, family, and whoever else. Then I think it's over until it airs in late spring or summer!

HGTV Week 1

2012-01-17T19:58:00.001-06:00

We survived week #1! I must admit, it's been seriously crazy on our street. I mean CRAZY. Cars, pickups, bobcats, mixer trucks, landscape trucks, a honkin' RV, and various camera crew vehicles have lined both sides of our street from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., and more times than not, have completely blocked the street. Getting in and out of the cul de sac has been a nightmare -- I'm so afraid I'm going to back into a vehicle, or run over someone's equipment, or worse. And there is a constant stream of people walking up and down the street: camera and sound people, the two hosts, producers, painters, landscapers, neighborhood gawkers, etc. Crazy! Oh, and get this: The post office has decided to suspend mail delivery to our street until the construction is done. Guess I'll be taking several trips to the post office every week for a while.

Despite the driving logistics nightmare, all in all it's pretty cool to have this happening on our street. We have all learned quickly that you should not leave your house without being fully dressed, makeup on and hair done, and ready to be interviewed at a moment's notice. The production crew likes to get the neighbors' reactions to all the changes going on, so we now come out fully prepared to face the cameras if need be. It's kind of fun, actually. But I can't imagine being Amy, Amanda or Hollee, who have to be on camera periodically all day long... they say they're getting used to it, but wow, I'm not sure I could handle that.

So I've been interviewed once by myself, and several times in a group so far. Last week Kimberly, the other host of the show, sat all of us moms down in the cul de sac to chat on camera. That one was pretty fun because it was very low-key, just like a regular conversation between neighbors; the one I did by myself was nerve-wracking because I'm not good at thinking on my feet. Oh, and one time John Gidding was chatting with several of us on camera, and I was standing right next to him... and, well, let's just say he gave me a little shower. How do you descretely wipe the host's spittle off your face while the camera is rolling?!

Another of our Pokeno friends, Nicki, is getting her house made over as well; we drove by this weekend to see the progress on her house. They are filming hers as its own separate show, so she'll be in her own little spotlight. (The three on my street are being filmed as an hour-long special.) This couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving bunch of ladies! Love my neighbors!!

Yesterday this fun little project was on the front page of the paper. You can go here to read it.

This last picture is for Tuell. He was SOOOO excited when some of the crews had leftover top soil to give away. Tuell got 4 loads of it brought down on the bobcat and dumped in our front yard. He is in landscape heaven!

HGTV Invasion

2012-01-06T12:48:00.001-06:00

This week our street has been taken over by the HGTV people, who are here to film a new episode of Curb Appeal: Block Party, to air sometime this spring. There are cars and trucks parked all up and down our street and the cross street at the beginning of the cul de sac, so it's been a bit hard to get in and out of the neighborhood. Add to that all the construction going on (the city is rebuilding the road behind our house), and it's just one big mess! And it will be this way for all of January as they do the construction and filming for the next three weeks. So if anyone wants to come meet John Gidding (the show's host), come on over! We had a deep conversation about tea (he prefers peppermint) yesterday, so we are BFFs now.

Thursday they were doing interviews with the three neighbors of ours whose houses are getting the makeovers, and at the end of the day, they wanted to get some neighbors' reactions about the whole thing. Against my better judgment, I let myself be interviewed, and worse, Livian recorded it with our camera so I can watch it and nitpick myself to pieces. Livian and Avalie also were interviewed, and they did a really good job. Livian is so well spoken, and she had some good quotes about the middle school bus stop, which is right in front of one of the makeover houses. We've heard the HGTV people are incorporating a bus stop into the plans... but we shall see.

Today is the design reveal day, so I've spent all morning outside sitting in my driveway babysitting my neighbor's little boy and chatting with my other neighbor as we watch the TV shoots and interviews. John Gidding and his entourage have been hanging out in front of my house quite a bit today, as that is where they parked one of their many vehicles and their snack table for the day.

Craziness.

Christmas Visitors

2012-01-06T12:24:00.000-06:00

Bo, Becky and Taylor stopped in at the Green Bed & Breakfast Sunday night on their way to Indiana. We had a ham dinner, followed by a gift exchange. The following Friday Bo and Taylor came through again on their way home; Becky stayed a few more days to visit her mother a bit longer.

Merry Christmas 2011

2012-01-06T12:21:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas day was very low-key and relaxed. The girls got up around 7 a.m., went downstairs to collect their stockings, then came upstairs and went through their little gifts on our bed while Tuell and I were waking up. Then it was time for breakfast and presents! I found it interesting how things change through the years; each year seems to be calmer than the last, still exciting but now the excitement is more contained. They still really enjoy opening presents, but they each seemed to focus on just one gift at a time rather than rushing to open them all. In fact, we had to encourage them several times to move on to the next gift, so it wouldn't drag on for hours.

The "big" gifts this year weren't really big, but since we got a total of four, they were the main focus. Each of the girls, and Tuell, got a remote controlled car, and they had fun driving around trying not to run into each other. Good thing Melaina's was well built, because she couldn't control it very well and kept running it full-speed into the wall.

Avalie has really been into singing lately, so she was so excited that Santa brought her a karaoke machine. She can plug in her iPod and sing right along. Even Livian wanted to play with it! We pretty much had a week-long concert at our house that week.

Livian just continues to amaze me. She loves making gifts for people, and this year she made me a kitty out of cardboard boxes and tubes. You pull on his tongue, and written on the tongue is a daily fortune. So cute! She says I'm supposed to tear off one part of the tongue a day (it's a super long strip of pink paper all rolled up inside), but so far I haven't gotten up the courage to tear it yet. It's too cute!

Of course, I had to give her a BIG juicy kiss to thank her!

Our final gift was to the whole family -- an iPad! We are all loving our new toy, and unbelievably there has been very little fighting over it so far! (Maybe because they can't pry it out of Mommy's hot little hands...?)

Pre-Christmas: Painting, Ballet, Christmas Eve

2011-12-31T20:23:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve (is that right?) we met Michelle and her crew at Creative Hands, a paint-your-own ceramics place. Melaina chose to paint a bird to look like Jewel from Rio (she is a girl obsessed), and by the time she was done, that poor little birdie had SO many layers of paint on it. Avalie chose to paint a mermaid, Livian painted two wolves, and Tuell painted a cat to look like Koda. (Much to our delight, Tuell looked mildly embarrassed when the worker asked him if he'd like sparkles on his kitty!) I worked on a big 'M' for Melaina, Andrew chose a snake, Ally painted Rapunzel, and Michelle painted a frog (what else?).

I got fed up with my messy craft room toward the end of the week and decided it needed a major overhaul. I spent the majority of two days cleaning out a bunch of stuff and giving it away on craigslist, then I rearranged all the furniture and deep cleaned everything. So much better! I think watching Hoarders is great inspiration to tackle those big yucky projects I've been putting off.

Friday afternoon we took the girls to the Bass Hall in downtown Fort Worth to see the Nutcracker. We were at the tip-top of the theater, but we were still able to see, thankfully. The girls seemed to enjoy the first half, but Melaina got bored toward the end and had trouble sitting still.

Avalie had been reminding me periodically all week that Santa needed some fresh cookies, so Saturday we spent some time in the kitchen baking and decorating sugar cookies. I'm sure poor Santa was surprised to see Swedish Fish and pretty much every other candy the girls had access to on his cookies!

We decided it would be fun to go to a candelight Christmas Eve service, so we attended the one at the local baptist church down the road. I really enjoyed it, and even the kids were paying attention and participating. It was a nice reminder of the real reason for Christmas and who we are celebrating!

After dinner we let the girls open presents from family, then spent the rest of the evening playing with their new things until bedtime. They always enjoy getting to open their 'sister' gifts from each other. Avalie's was a lizard Webkinz, Livian's was a giant chocolate bar, and Melaina's was a Beanie Boo stuffed unicorn and matching baby unicorn. I'm so happy that they get along so well and love doing nice things for each other. Sisters are the best!

Then it was off to bed, but not before setting out some delicious Swedish Fish cookies and milk!

Pre-Christmas: Parties & Hot Chocolate Overdose

2011-12-29T16:38:00.000-06:00

The last week of school before Christmas break is always crazy, and this year was no exception. I had several etsy orders to fulfill, plus I had promised the girls I would finish their new winter coats. Livian and Avalie both chose faux fur this year, which is a big pain, but they turned out pretty cute. At school, some of the PTA moms decided to host a luncheon for all the teachers, so I was in and out of the school Wednesday helping with that. Thursday afternoon were the class parties. I was able to help out with those as well, and I managed to make it to both girls' classrooms to participate in each of their parties. Much easier than last year, when I had to split myself three ways!

Sunday our small group had a little holiday gathering, with some appetizer-type foods and a book exchange for the kids. I love that group!

Tuell took off work for two weeks beginning the 19th, so we had the whole week before Christmas with everyone home. We had big plans to do some fun things, but a stomach bug hit a couple members of our family early in the week, so things were on hold for a few days. When at last everyone felt better, we madly crammed in a bunch of fun stuff at the end of the week!

Wednesday night we used our Six Flags annual passes to go to Holiday in the Park. It was cold, but we got a bottomless hot chocolate mug and stayed warm the yummy way. We all got to experience the sledding ride, which of course uses fake snow. Fake snow is just weird.

Thanksgiving 2011, pt 2

2011-12-17T21:23:00.000-06:00

Friday after doing some Black Friday shopping in the morning, we helped Jade celebrate her birthday. We started with a string maze around the swingset, which led to a goody bag plus one word (well, partial word) of a clue for each of the four girls. It was hilarious watching them try to figure out the clue. The answer was "washing machine," but Tuell had broken them up into WAS, HING, MAC, and HINE. Jade was convinced the clue was something in Chinese!

At last they figured out the clue, and inside the washing machine they found our next activity: Tie Dye! They each got a white shirt to dye, and thankfully the weather was nice enough so we could stay outdoors with the inevitable mess. Melaina's shirt started out looking nice, but gradually she kept adding more and more dye, until it was a nasty brownish mud color. Jade poured dye all over her hands and made handprints on the back of her shirt, then spent the next hour scrubbing the dye off her hands. Silly girls!

Tuell was able to help Bo a bit in the yard on Saturday. That boy likes his power tools!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-16T09:51:00.000-06:00

Wednesday late afternoon we left home for our annual pilgramage to Abilene for Thanksgiving. As expected, traffic was horrendous, so we made the decision to try a different route. We got off the freeway, went north a bit, and drove the whole way on an old highway. The traffic was much lighter, and we got to see some really cool old towns along the way. We also got to see an awesome sunset, and the wind tower farm thing (technical term) right outside of Abilene. Neato.

Bo & Becky had been getting their kitchen completely rehauled during the fall, but unfortunately there were some hangups and it wasn't done in time for Thanksgiving. They had a fridge, but no appliances except for a quirky microwave that was on its last leg. But never fear! Becky had it all figured out, and things went pretty smoothly. They had no kitchen countertops, so Bo improvised by putting tables on top of the open cabinet tops. We did most of the actual cooking over at the University Church's kitchen, which the girls enjoyed because they got to play in an empty church building while the food cooked. I must admit, having the kitchen not completely functional actually made things a lot more fun. There was a lot of laughter and more silliness than usual, which I loved. We ended up with a wonderful meal, and more importantly, we had a great family time together. Hopefully next year Rho and Kristen will be there with their kids. We missed them this year.

Fossil Rim

2011-12-16T09:36:00.000-06:00

As something fun for the kids during the days before thanksgiving, we had made plans to go to Florida so they could play on the beach. The kids were so excited... We parents, not so much. Not because we didn't want to go, but because the flights are always so full. Sure enough, the week before we were scheduled to leave, Tuell checked the flights and saw that there were only seven open seats on the most open flight. Since we take five seats, the odds didn't look so hot, so we cancelled our plans. We didnt want a repeat of our August Seattle fiasco!
We used the extra time at home cleaning up, doing hobbies, and playing outside. We wanted to do at least one big activity, so on Tuesday we spent the day at Fossil Rim, the wildlife park you drive through and the animals come and terrorize your children through the open windows. But this time it was even more exciting because we drove Tuell's truck, and Melaina and Livian rode in the truck bed. Avalie was still traumatized from her close encounter with the ostrich last time, so she stayed inside the truck.

We got to see all the animals up close except the zebras. I think the overall favorite was the giraffes. They were so gentle and ate right out of our hands!

Melainaism

2011-12-03T13:49:00.000-06:00

In her quest for a bigger vocabulary: "Mom, I just recuperated on the rug!"

November news

2011-11-29T10:53:00.001-06:00

Tuell decided he needed a new project to keep himself busy, so he has been working on a treehouse of sorts for the kids and their friends. Over the years, Livian has created a "wolf pack" made up of all the kids on the street, each with their own title and job in the pack, and their "den" is under the tree and bushes in our side yard. The kids have played over there so much that there is no grass or ground cover, so it is always muddy and filthy. To help with the grime, Tuell is building his new project over there. He wants to make it look like an actual house... but with a tree growing out of the center of it, I'm not sure I understand what he's picturing. But knowing Tuell, I'm sure it'll be amazing! The kids have really enjoyed helping (er, getting in the way?)...

Melaina had her first grade Thanksgiving program the Thursday before the holiday break, and boy was she excited! She had been singing her little heart out around the house for the last several weeks. Tuell and I went to the daytime performance so we didn't have to battle the other parents for a good spot to record, and that turned out to be a very smart move. I took Melaina to the evening performance that night, and I couldn't believe how crowded and crazy it was. People were standing on the cafeteria tables, waving and yelling their kids' names, while I was able to just sit in the back and enjoy the sweet voices.

In this first picture, I got a great shot of our adorable neighbor Chloe, but Melaina wouldn't look at me. Erg! The second picture is Melaina with her best friend Karine.

Crafty Goodness

2011-11-29T10:37:00.000-06:00

I think I have craftitis. Seriously.

Ever since opening my etsy shop, my sewing room has looked like a tornado hit it. Yikes. But I've been super productive, so that counts for something, right? Besides getting stuff put onto my website, I also spent most of October getting ready for the craft fair at our elementary school Fall Festival. I had a bunch of inventory leftover from last year, but I wanted to add some new stuff. I made some ruffle tote bags and also a million adorable little embroidered hair clips. Busy!

The craft fair was maddening, but overall it was OK. They had the vendors set up outside, and the wind that day was horrible! I ended up having to safety pin everything down to the tablecloth, and then tape the tablecloth to the legs of the tables. I had a cute setup of all those hair clips, but the wind knocked it completely off the table no less than three times, leaving me and any kids I could cooerce scrambling to grab them all before they blew away. I was nearly in tears before the festival even started because I couldn't keep my stuff on the tables!

Sales were light, but I expected that. I made enough that I felt it was worthwhile though. My main goal was to pass out business cards directing people to my etsy site, and Livian helped a ton with that. Traffic on my etsy site has definitely picked up. I should probably advertise on facebook and craigslist, but I'm still kinda chicken. So if you know of anyone looking for gifts or handmade stuff, send them my way!

Because of the stress of trying to keep things from blowing away, I didn't get any pictures at the actual craft fair, but I did take some of my setup in the house beforehand. You can get the general idea of how it all looked.

Pre-Halloween Festivies, part 2

2011-11-02T09:22:00.000-05:00

Saturday night we had our annual block party in our cul-de-sac. Michelle and her family came up to join us as well. We had frito pie, enchiladas, and a bunch of other food, plus games for the kids, including a scavenger hunt that I had made. The "treasure" at the end was sugar cookies to decorate, and some of those kids REALLY enjoyed those sprinkles!

Sunday after church Melaina and I went to her best friend's birthday party. She had the Creature Teacher come; this lady brings all sorts of animals for the kids to touch and learn about. My favorites were the hedgehog and the chinchilla. That poor chinchilla got passed around so much during that party, I was afraid for its little life!

When we got back from the party, Melaina had barely enough time to change into her costume before we had to leave for our church's trunk or treat. Both Livian and Avalie brought friends to hang out with, which made for quite a squishy car ride, what with the rat-a-pult and lollipop tree in the car, as well as everyone's costumes. Tuell and I ran our games the whole time while the kids walked around and ate a ton of junk food. Yum.

Pre-Halloween Festivities

2011-11-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

Halloween weekend ended up a little crazy this year; good thing I had the girls' costumes done early! We had an ostrich rider (again -- gotta love getting two years' use out of a costume!), a cheerleader, and Jewel, the blue bird from the movie Rio.

Friday night our elementary school had its trunk or treat, plus Livian had a halloween party to go to. Taxiing everyone around was a little crazy, but in the end the girls had a good time. Livian sure loves all the attention that ostrich costume attracts!

Saturday morning was unexpectedly crazy as well. Let's see if I can explain this... Last week my friend and neighbor Amy asked me if I wanted to enter a contest for HGTV for a show called Curb Appeal. Basically you submit pictures and a video showing how icky the front of your house looks, and if you win, you and two of your neighbors get fancy schmancy makeovers for the front of your house/yard. Initially I said I'd go in with Amy as an applicant, but after some thought and discussion with Tuell, we ended up declining. (Our main reasons were not wanting to be on TV, and Tuell not wanting other people messing with his yard.). So Amy went in with two of our other neighbors to create a video to submit.

Soon after applying, Amy received the news that they made it to the top 10, and Saturday morning some PR people were going to come out to interview them and take some videos. This would allow the network to narrow the choices down to a winner, which would be announced by Nov. 1. The interviews started early, so by the time I got outside to go watch them, I figured they'd be nearly done. After 15 minutes or so of watching them walk around Amy's yard filming, a car drove up and stopped. And out came John Gidding, the star of the show, to surprise them with the news that they had won! I hadnt seen the show so I didn't realize who this guy was, but it was pretty obvious from his model looks that he was someone from TV. Then when Amy, Amanda and Hollee started screaming and going nuts, it was pretty clear what had just happened!

The next several hours nearly all our neighbors were outside watching the filming. It was seriously unreal! So now we have to wait until January when they will do the filming to find out what cool stuff is going to be done to three of my awesome neighbors' houses!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T22:00:00.000-05:00

Abilene

2011-11-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

The weekend of October 15 we headed to Abilene for ACUs homecoming. Tuell was able to get off work early, so we left soon after livian got home from school that Friday, ate dinner on the road, and arrived around 8 pm. First we got a little tour of Bo and Beckys kitchen demolition; they were gearing up for a total kitchen renovation starting that coming Monday, so they had torn down the wall separating the living room and the kitchen, leaving a big hole in the floor. The girls thought that was pretty exciting! We can't wait to see the completed kitchen in a few weeks at thanksgiving!

ACU was having a concert and fireworks on campus, so after Bo and Becky finished dinner, we walked over and suffered through some pretty annoying Christian rap music before a nice, long fireworks show. The girls seemed to really enjoy that, as well as doing some gymnastics on the wide open lawn beforehand.

Saturday we all walked over to our usual spot on Campus Court for the annual parade. The kids got lots of candy thrown toward them and had lots of fun dividing it up when we got home. Next up was a visit to a Texas pumpkin patch (i.e., a bunch of pumpkins strewn out on some dead grass). It provided for some cute photo ops and a fun hayride for the kids, but the pumpkins were so overpriced that we stopped at Walmart on the way home and got ours there instead.

That afternoon the girls worked on carving their pumpkins. Then we had our traditional scooter riding in the University Church parking lot, followed by dinner and a rousing game of I Never before baths and bed.

Sunday was church of course, and after packing up, we headed home. A very nice weekend!

Happy 25th to me

2011-10-12T17:07:00.000-05:00

Friday morning I was roused from my slumber by three very excited little girls bearing our family's special red plate with toast and chocolate bars (Livian's idea) on it, plus a nice hot cup of tea. So sweet! But don't they know you're supposed to let old people sleep? Heehee
I had a nice lunch with Michelle at our usual Mexican place, El Chico. We entered the restaurant at the same time as two elderly ladies, one with big puffy hair and one with a bright red purse, and we decided they were our future selves... Still lunching at the same restaurant 50 years down the line.

That afternoon I had help making my birthday carrot cake, and then when Tuell got home we went to our favorite pizza buffet for my birthday dinner. I didn't choose my usual once-a-year steak because I so enjoy the happy family time we usually have at this pizza place. It didn't disappoint!

After dinner we went home to open presents. Livian gave me some new pjs that were a fundraiser at her middle school, and they gave me a few other small things. But they saved the best for last.

Actually, I don't know which of the last two I like the best! One was a new hanging rack to hold all my crafting ribbons, courtesy of Tuell's handiwork. I love it!!! (So does Mary, my childhood doll. And excuse the pic -- it's from my phone.) As Tuell was hanging it up over my sewing machine, he mentioned that my sewing stuff is taking over the computer room. Hmm... I was hoping he hadn't noticed... Should I tell him I've started calling it my sewing studio?

The second big birthday surprise was a vintage featherweight sewing machine in its own cabinet! We had been to a garage sale a couple weeks before and I had drooled over it, but we discussed how we really don't have a good place for it. Apparently he snuck out later that day and got it for me, then stashed it in the shed without me knowing!

We had cake and ice cream after playing with the sewing machine, then sent the kids to bed on a sugar high. We are awesome parents.

It's good to be 25.

Rainbow bargello quilt FINALLY DONE!

2011-10-03T12:24:00.000-05:00

I started this quilt probably a year ago, and managed to mess up the middle of the quilt top. Instead of fixing it, I packed it away and moved on. Well, I finally got motivated to pull it out and fix it. It's still not perfect, but much better than it was.

Oh, and check out that awesome stipple quilting. This is the first big quilt (roughly twin size) that I've stippled myself, and it actually turned out decent. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed stippling and can't wait to do more (after a nice long break -- it took me three days to quilt this one). I'm so excited that it's finally done!!!

In other sewing-related news, I've come down with a very serious sewing infatuation. As in, that's all that I'm doing these days. More than usual. A lot more than usual. Hard to believe, right? I'm doing so much sewing that I haven't had time to put everything up on my Green Menagerie blog or my etsy shop. Oh well. I'm having fun. Be sure to check my etsy shop, as I'm updating it weekly!

Livian has gone WIRELESS!

2011-09-22T09:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a momentous day for Livian. She got her braces off! She really had it easy, only having them for 13 months. Not bad at all.

She was so funny... right when we got home, she grabbed a snack bag of (very crunchy) Fritos and scarfed those, then begged me to let her have (very chewy) Airhead candy. She was in heaven! Today I'm going to make her day by sending a whole, uncut apple in her lunch. Oooh, the excitement!

The orthodontist put in top and bottom permanent retainers, which are basically just a little piece of wire glued to the backs of her front eight teeth to keep them in place. The top one will be removed in a couple weeks when she gets her removable retainer, but the bottom one will be there permanently.

Is that not the most beautiful smile?!

In other news, I've caught the crafting bug yet again. My latest project has been a quilt for my friend's mom. She had a bunch of her grandmother's hand-embroidered linens and doilies and wanted me to make them into a quilt. I'm always up for a challenge, so I agreed. I just finished it last week, and while it was a big undertaking, I'm pleased with how it turned out. And more importantly, the woman I made it for loved it!

Also, I finally got brave and opened an etsy store, so I've been working to get stuff posted on there before I tell many people about it. I only have a few things on there, so it's kinda pathetic right now. But I'm feeling nice, so you can go check it out here. Just don't tell anyone yet because I still have a ton of stuff to post!

Back to school + a birthday

2011-09-06T21:31:00.000-05:00

The girls started a new year of school on Tuell's birthday this year, and as much as I hate to admit it, I think I was more nervous than they were. Avalie and Melaina were fine with starting school because it was the same basic stuff as last year, just different class. Avalie's best friend isn't in her class, but they managed to survive last year, so I'm sure they'll be fine. Melaina, on the other hand, has our neighbor Chloe in her class. These two play together regularly and get along well ... perhaps too well. They tend to giggle and chat more when they are together, so I may need to have a talk with their teacher if they become a problem. But so far, so good.

Livian is officially a middle schooler! I really worked myself up worrying about her before school started, complete with nightmares and insomnia. Meanwhile, Livian really showed little if any anxiety. She was a bit nervous the first day, but after that she was just excited! She absolutely LOVES middle school. She says the best part about it is all the freedom they have, compared to elementary school. She has classes with a lot of her friends, and she already has a "stalker" as she likes to call it -- a boy who follows her around and tries to buy her ice cream at lunch. Heehee.

One bit of news about Livian's school: On the first day, she came home saying they weren't allowed to have backpacks! I knew they weren't going to have lockers, but no backpacks? Really?! They are expected to carry around ONLY one three-ring binder, and the girls are allowed to carry one small purse. The first week of school was ridiculous, with all the kids trying to bring books home, supplies to school, etc. I was so afraid Livian would drop something and lose it, which she tends to do even WITH a backpack. But she managed to do OK, and now that everything is settled down, it seems like it'll all work out. Until it gets cold and they have coats, gloves, hats, etc., to deal with...

Since Tuell's birthday fell on the first day of school this year, we went out to eat on Saturday for his birthday dinner (to Mercado Juarez, our favorite Mexican food restaurant). But he had to wait until Monday night for his presents! The girls each made him a card, and Livian also made him a puzzle that she drew herself. Tuell's big present was something he's been wanting for years... a unicycle! He is just a big kid at heart, isn't he?! He and the neighbor boy across the street, who is Livian's age and also just got a unicycle, go out in the street in the evenings and see who can go the farthest. Pretty funny.

Northwest relief, final chapter

2011-08-24T12:09:00.000-05:00

Wednesday Mom and Dad drove us to the airport after lunch, with the stipulation that they would come back and get us if we couldn't get on a flight. We knew we were going to have a hard time flying standby in the summer, but wow, way worse than we imagined. That morning Tuell booked us as two separate groups, he and Avalie flying through Chicago, and the rest of us trying for a direct flight back to DFW, hoping that would increase our chances of getting on a flight home. Our gates were near each other, so it was easy to keep tabs on everyone and stay together while we waited... and missed flight after flight after flight. Yep, they were all full or overbooked, so we just kept getting bumped. Finally Tuell relisted us all on one of the late afternoon Chicago flights, which was full as well, but somehow we got on. (Our thinking was that there are a lot more options to get home from Chicago than Seattle.)

We got into Chicago at 11 p.m. or so, and found a McDonald's that was still open because we hadn't eaten dinner yet. While we ate, Tuell used his handy dandy iphone to find us a hotel, which was pretty stressful considering we had no reservations, no car, etc. We ended up at a hotel where the AA crews stay, and it was super nice. We had no luggage (it went on the first flight we had tried for) and only a few toiletry items, so the bedtime routine was quick, and the girls and I went to bed. Tuell stayed up on the laptop trying to find us a way home. Have I mentioned that he is my hero?

We were only in our room for about four hours before the alarm went off for us to go catch a taxi back to the airport. Tuell had found two open flights, Chicago to Memphis, then Memphis to DFW. Once in Dallas we had to go find our luggage that had arrived the day before, and the travel gods were smiling on us at last, because we guessed correctly on where it might be, and walked right up to the correct storage counter where it was locked up. After traveling for nearly 24 hours, we made it home around 12:30. I've never been so happy to be home!

There was no time for napping though, because I had to take Livian to the middle school at 1:30 to pick up her schedule, drop off her school supplies, and find all her classes. I was so glad we made it home in time for that! We then spent the next couple days trying to recover from our travel ordeal and get back to normal.

Northwest relief, final day(s)

2011-08-24T11:48:00.000-05:00

Tuesday we went to Alki for lunch, then stayed and fed the seagulls and played on the beach. There weren't many shells, but we did enjoy finding some cool rocks. Melaina got bored looking at rocks, so she made a lovely sand angel. Silly girl.

After lunch Mom and I went to the drugstore while Tuell took the kids (and dog) for a walk down to the park by my old junior high. Then we spent some time packing up our stuff to head home the next day. Little did we know...

Northwest relief, day 5

2011-08-22T13:16:00.000-05:00

Monday morning we went with Nana and Poppa to Snoqualmie Falls. (It was a wonderful 58 degrees; quite a change from the 100+ degree heat we'd been having in Texas!) Unfortunately the trails were under construction, so we weren't able to walk down to the bottom of the falls. So we walked around up top, wandered through the gift shop, and went on home.

After an afternoon nap, Dad dropped us off at the beginning of Soos Creek Trail so we could go explore. Almost immediately Avalie caught a snake, and that poor little guy rode in her pants pocket the whole way. We had a nice time walking through the trees and spotting wildlife (do slugs count as wildlife?), and then Dad picked us up at one of the parks along the way to head home. Tracy's family came over for dinner that night.

Northwest relief, day 4

2011-08-15T16:14:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning we went to Mom's church, then met Tracy and her clan for lunch at -- where else? -- the peanut place. After a relaxing afternoon, we all went over to Tracy's for our traditional pizza dinner. Tracy had just finished directing girl scout day camp the week before and still had all the camp stuff in her garage, so we helped her organize enough of the stuff so they could at least get a car in the garage. Then most of us went for a walk over to a nearby lake. Such awesome weather!

Northwest relief, day 3

2011-08-15T15:58:00.000-05:00

We loaded into a taxi at the hideous hour of 4:30 a.m. Saturday to get to the train station in plenty of time for our 6:40 train. After sitting an hour on the tracks, we were finally on our way. They kept slowing the train down for cargo train traffic, so we never got up to a decent speed. Then, about 45 minutes into our trip, we smelled smoke and burning rubber, and noticed smoke outside the train, originating at the front of our car about 10 feet from where we were sitting. There was a flurry of activity by uniformed men, then we stopped so they could flurry about some more. Turns out one of the brakes was sticking, and it had damaged the wheel.

We limped along at a slug's pace, taking four hours to get to the next station when it should have taken one. There we were told to get off the train and board buses that would take us the rest of the way. Unfortunately we had to wait over an hour for the buses to arrive. Meanwhile, we played hopscotch using bark to draw with, we had a lovely picnic lunch (thankfully we had brought some bread and cheese with us), and we all tried not to scream and cry with frustration!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that we had accidentally left our case of DVDs at the train station in Vancouver, so the girls didn't have much entertainment. We realized our mistake about 20 minutes into the trip and called the station, and thankfully they had found it and said they would mail it to our home address. As of this posting, they still have our DVDs (I called today to check) and we are still waiting for the nice Canadians to send them.

The bus ride was not ideal (no A/C), but we had a super sweet driver and he got us where we needed to go in a decent amount of time. Mom and Dad picked us up in downtown Seattle, and I nearly cried with relief. What a long, frustrating day! We went back to their house and napped, and then Tracy and her family came over for dinner. Our girls especially loved getting to play with their cousins, meeting Nana's new kitten, Pebbles, and playing with Nana's dogs in the backyard.

Northwest relief, day 2

2011-08-15T15:32:00.000-05:00

Friday morning our plans were messed up by the hotel pool being closed for maintenance. So instead of a morning swim, we went on up to Stanley Park for the day. They have an awesome playground, so we stopped there first, then had lunch at an outdoor cafe in the park. Tuell found a trail to follow that had a lot of steep hills and went along the coastline. The girls held up well until near the end, when poor little Melaina's legs started cramping painfully. Tuell ended up carrying her the rest of the way.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach; all the girls wanted to do was build a sandcastle. It was yet another beautiful day, around 77 degrees, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We headed back to the hotel hoping to swim, but the pool was still closed. Not to be detered, we went up to the rooftop and played in the hot tub, then walked around the little garden area/walking trail up there. Livian was thrilled to discover that they keep a family of rabbits up on the rooftop garden, and they were free to hop around wherever they wanted to up there. Strange seeing rabbits roaming free on the 8th floor roof of a building!

We had grilled cheese sandwiches in our room for dinner, shuttled everyone through the shower, and put the girls to bed. We had a 4 a.m. wakeup call Saturday morning that was coming fast!

Northwest relief, day 1

2011-08-13T18:59:00.000-05:00

Texas has been having record-setting heat, up to 110 degrees, so we decided we needed a trip north to escape for a bit. We caught an early flight last Thursday morning and flew into Vancouver, BC, Canada, around noon. By the way, this was the only travel on the whole trip that went smoothly. More about that later.

The cool 70s weather that greeted us in Canada was heavenly! The traffic, however, was not. After renting a car, it took us quite a bit of time to find our hotel. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we found a beach and some walking trails to explore. The girls enjoyed picking wild blackberries along the path and marveling over the numerous plants, flowers and birds we saw along the way.

After checking into our hotel, we headed up to Stanley Park, a 1,000 acre forested park with trails, beaches, and numerous other fun things to explore. We drove the loop to survey the area, then hiked around enjoying the cool weather and trees (and photographing and naming all the slugs we found along the way) before going down to the beach to catch crabs and play in the sand. It was an unusually clear, warm day, and we actually ended up with a little sunburn!

On the way back to the hotel we picked up some groceries and also Subway and pizza for dinner. Everyone was exhausted from getting up so early, so we crashed fairly early that night.

Please excuse Melaina's weird pose. She thinks it's terribly amusing. We do not.

This is Gus. Handsome fellow, eh?

Happy 11th Birthday, Livian!

2011-08-03T10:16:00.000-05:00

Livian's birthday fell on a Wednesday this year. For her birthday dinner she chose Mercado Juarez, or the "good tortilla place" to our girls. On her actual birthday she shared brownies with her gymnastics team and had a bit of present opening at home, but the real festivities began Friday.

Livian had invited six girls over for a sleepover party, so with our three plus one of Avalie's friends, we had 10 little girls total. We served them pizza and rainbow jello for dinner, followed by a craft of decorating denim goody bags with a variety of trims, iron-ons, stencils, and whatever else I dug out of my craft room.

Oh, Livian's theme this year was -- what else? -- safari animals. I was happy that she brightened it up by choosing tableware that had both animal prints and some colorful flowers, so it was a bit more girlie than in years past. We had ordered animal print gangster hats and printed balloons from Oriental Trading, along with all the tableware, so it turned out pretty cute. Her cake was basically the same as last year, except more yellow (sandy safari) than green (rainforest).

Livian had worked diligently for a couple weeks making up a life-sized board game to play, so that was our next activity. She had come up with a bunch of dares and some themed trivia questions for the spaces on the board (construction paper taped down all over the playroom/entryway). We had made some giant dice made out of cardboard boxes for the girls to roll with, and I set out a little smorgasbord of candy for them to munch on while they played. At each turn they got to collect fake money depending on how well they did on their dare/question. Then at the end of the game, we had an auction! I had set out 16 different prizes (collected from my bargain-hunting gift stash), and they had to use their money to bid on the items. We only had one girl not get what she wanted (Avalie's friend), so afterward I dug around my gift closet and found something she was happy with. She looked so sad; I couldn't let her go home with an unwanted gift! Yes, I'm a sucker.

Next up was the annual scavenger hunt. We made the mistake of waiting too late so it was nearly dark, which made finding the clues much harder than it should have been. But overall the girls had fun running around doing the activities to find each clue.

The last clue led to a big cooler filled with water balloons and water guns, which turned out to be more fun than I expected. The girls were hot from running around finding clues (it was over 100 degrees that day), so the water was a great way to cool off. Tuell had one of those huge blaster water guns and really got the girls soaked ... and then the girls ganged up on him and soaked him. Poor Tuell.

To let the girls dry before coming back inside, they played glow-in-the-dark hide and seek in the cul-de-sac. I had a ton of those glowing necklaces, bracelets, etc, for the girls to wear while playing hide and seek in the dark. The girls LOVED this activity ... not sure my neighbors did though. Much screaming and giggling, but at least we made them come in by 10:00, so hopefully we didn't make too many neighbors upset with us!

Next it was back inside for cake, ice cream and presents, then we marched them all upstairs to their sleeping bags. Yes, we pumped them full of sweets and sent them to bed. I know, not the smartest idea, but that's just how it worked out. Of course, they didn't actually sleep for several hours, but at least they kept (mostly) quiet!

Crazy Cat Lady -- er, Girl

2011-08-03T08:41:00.000-05:00

For about a year, Livian has been begging to volunteer at the local animal shelter (big surprise, huh?). I did a little research and found out she can only volunteer under an adult. Lucky me. To become a certified volunteer, you have to sign up online for a class and pay $25. I had tried briefly to sign up online, but the form wouldn't work properly, so since I really didn't want to do it anyway, I sort of let it slide.

Well, Livian wouldn't give up. One morning she came bounding out of the computer room with a huge smile on her face, claiming that she had signed us up. What?! Sure enough, she had taken it upon herself to figure out and finish the online registration. That girl is motivated when she wants something!

So one Saturday morning she and I attended the volunteer certification class (5 hours long, I might add), and now we are official volunteers. Now any time we have a free moment, Livian's first words are, "Can we go to the shelter?" Insert matronly scream here.

Bowling!

2011-07-25T14:32:00.000-05:00

Our small group has been doing a variety of fun stuff this summer, and last week's activity was lunch and bowling after church. The kids had a blast bowling, and the adults had fun watching old '80s music videos on the screens at the end of the lanes! Oh yah, the bowling was fun too.

Going forth on the fourth

2011-07-11T21:05:00.000-05:00

July 4 we had a relaxing day around the house, followed by a cookout with our small group at the Warren's. The kids love playing in their huge backyard, but being a typical Texas summer, it was entirely too hot to do much of anything outside! So the kids played inside while we waited for dark.

Last year our group's chosen fireworks-watching spot left a lot to be desired, so this year we tried a new spot. Success at last! As an added bonus, the parking lot we watched from just happened to belong in part to a Half-Price Books store, so instead of baking in the evening heat while we waited for the show to start, we perused the bookstore in air conditioned bliss.

Despite having to wait until 10:00 for the fireworks to start, we had a good time. Some other people in the crowded parking lot had music going (they were actually playing Rock Band out of the back of their car!), so the kids had a blast dancing around in the back of Tuell's pickup and just being silly... And candy and ice cream helped too.

The fireworks show was definitely worth the wait. It was one of the longest shows I've ever experienced (or maybe it just felt that way because I'm not a huge fireworks fan?!).

Good times with good friends.

Cookin' in San Antonio

2011-07-10T17:09:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago we took the five-hour drive down to San Antonio for a little vacation with Bo, Becky, Taylor, and her friend Joy. We got off to a later start than we had planned, however, because Avalie woke up with an eye infection. I took her to a walk-in clinic, where they diagnosed pink eye and prescribed some eye drops for her that we were to give her three times a day for a week, and told her no swimming for five days. Not ideal for a vacation week, but we managed.

Upon our arrival at the resort around 5:00 and moving our stuff in, we all walked down to the Riverwalk for a nice dinner. We were seated outside right next to the water, and the girls enjoyed interacting with the ducks and pigeons that kept coming underfoot and waving to the people riding by on the riverboats. After dinner we took a boat tour, visited an awesome ice cream shop for dessert, then headed back to the resort.

Monday was Sea World day #1. We got there before it opened and had to stand in some seriously huge lines to get in (in the heat, of course -- the highs averaged about 100 degrees the whole time we were down there). Once inside, Tuell and I took the girls over to see the dolphins, then met everyone else at the sea lion show. Afterward we wandered through the sea lion exhibits, walked through the penguins while Bo and Taylor rode the Steel Eel roller coaster, and rode a fun water ride twice because there was no line -- where Bo and I managed to get completely soaked, while everyone else stayed relatively dry. We were a bit uncomfortable for a few hours after that while our clothes dried, but at least we stayed cool!

I was excited to see the Azul show next, with the dolphins and acrobats, because it is always so cool. And I wasn't disappointed! Awesome show. Then we loaded into our cars and went to a McDonald's down the road to eat our packed lunches in air conditioning and get re-energized for the rest of the day. After lunch we fed the dolphins (thanks, granddaddy, for the fish!), saw the sharks, and went to the Shamu show. Back at the hotel, we had a yummy spaghetti dinner, let the kids swim for a bit (we let Avalie swim, but not go underwater), and then crashed.

Tuesday was day #2 at Sea World, this time going solely to the water park. Tuell, Bo and I took our girls to the splash area first, but they quickly got bored there, which was unfortunate because Bo had found a perfect spot in the shade (he hadn't been cleared of all restrictions from his bone marrow transplant yet so had to stay out of the water). Then Tuell took the girls into the wave pool, which they loved. Finally the five of us floated around the lazy river for a while before calling it a day. We let the girls do some souvenir shopping on the way out of the park with some of their chore money. We had lasagna for dinner that night, then took a walk to the big mall along the Riverwalk in the evening.

Wednesday was shopping day. We took the resort shuttle to a Mexican market and poked through the trinkets for quite a while, then had lunch at a super yummy Mexican place. After a quick stop back at the hotel, we jumped on the shuttle again to go visit the Alamo. Not being from Texas, I really had no idea what the Alamo was, so I was pleased with the little movie they had showing that explained the history behind it.

Thursday we packed up our stuff and checked out of the hotel, then headed to the San Antonio Zoo for the day. Did you know that intense heat makes a zoo smell even worse than it usually does? Ew.

The butterfly exhibit was definitely a favorite for all of us. We took way too many pictures and probably spent way too much time in there, but it was so awesome! We had a picnic lunch at some tables just outside the zoo, then spent a little more time roaming before it was time to say goodbye to Bo, Becky, Taylor and Joy and head to our respective homes. Aside from hitting Austin at rush hour, we had a safe and pleasant trip home.

Indiana visit, part 2

2011-06-21T21:46:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning we attended church at Alice's home congregation, a tiny church of Christ of about 30 people out in very rural Indiana. The church doesn't have many kids, and that morning our girls were the only kids there. One of the ladies took them into a classroom and had "class" with them (a few coloring sheets and some songs) before worship. Alice hasn't been able to be there in a while, so we were pleased when one of the members said how nice it was to see Alice's pew full. That made me smile.

We ran by the grocery store on the way home from church so we could have baked potatoes for lunch, then Tuell spent a bit of time taking pictures of the house; it holds a lot of memories for him, and this was probably the last time he was going to be in it before it sold.

Also that morning I had come to realize that Melaina had contracted a UTI -- not fun when you're on a trip! We tried getting her to drink some cranberry juice that afternoon, but she wouldn't drink enough to make any difference. Poor thing had to wait until Monday morning to visit the doctor to get some antibiotics, and a couple more days until she got any substantial relief. Ugh!

We packed up our stuff before heading out to Lake Salinda, the lake Alice walked to every day for years. The girls enjoyed picking up (germ-infested) goose feathers, jumping on the little dock, and watching for critters making ripples in the water.

Then we went out to visit Alice one more time before we had to get back to the airport for our flight home. The girls had made her some get-well cards back at home and enjoyed giving those to her. It wasn't long before it was time to leave; Becky stayed behind to keep Alice company while Bo drove us back to Louisville to catch our plane. It was a very quick trip, but I am so thankful we were able to go. Alice is such a sweet lady and a tremendous blessing to us!

Freedom Flight News Story

2011-06-18T22:51:00.000-05:00

Here's a video of the local CBS coverage of the Freedom Flight back in May. Pretty neat story!

Indiana Visit, part 1

2011-06-16T09:22:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to catch a flight to Louisville for a quick weekend trip to Salem, IN, to visit Tuell's grandmother (Alice, or G.G. to the girls). Around Christmas Alice moved into an assisted living home, and the time had come to sell her house. Becky and her sister have been trying to ready the house for sale and an auction this coming weekend. They had much of Alice's belongings boxed up and moved out onto trailers in the big garage in preparation for the auction.

Bo and Becky picked us up at the airport, and after dropping our stuff off at the house, we went out to see Alice. She is doing as well as expected after her fall and subsequent broken pelvis, but is in quite a bit of pain when she moves and is also having trouble keeping her oxygen levels up. We sat around her room and chatted while the girls played card games on the floor, and watched the birds visiting the feeder outside her window.

We left when Alice's dinnertime came, and drove on some beautiful back roads in search of Amish communities. We saw quite a few Amish farmers working on their properties, an Amish boy riding a small horse, another boy riding a homemade scooter, and a horse-drawn buggy carrying an Amish family. So cool! We also drove by the pond -- er, I mean lake -- where Tuell and his family used to go waterskiing. Beautiful, but tiny!

After dinner, the girls had a blast running around Alice's large property catching fireflies, chasing rabbits, and making friends with the neighborhood cats. Finally it was bedtime, and the girls insisted on sleeping upstairs, despite it being HOT up there. We dragged up two box fans, and that helped. But after a little while Melaina came downstairs to sleep on the couch, saying it was too hot to sleep up there. Smart girl.

By the way, you may notice I'm wearing a brace on my wrist. I wish I had a cool story to tell... but I don't. I was helping Tuell move a very heavy table saw right before our garage sale and somehow hurt my wrist. I went to the doctor because it was so painful, and it turns out that it is badly sprained. Who knew sprains could hurt so bad?!

Party on

2011-06-14T09:14:00.000-05:00

Saturday after our garage sale was over, I took the two little girls to a birthday party for a friend in our small group. It was at a tea room that specializes in children's parties. The girls got to get their makeup and nails done, choose from a variety of princess dresses, be crowned by the birthday girl, walk the runway, and have giggle tea and cookies. So much fun!

Sunday the 5th, Bo and Becky came through on their way to Indiana. The following day was Becky's birthday, so after a grilled salmon dinner, we had birthday cake to celebrate.

No more teachers, no more books

2011-06-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

The end of the school year was super crazy, as I suppose it always is. The week of the Freedom Flight was especially busy. Tuesday, of course, Livian was on the flight, then Thursday evening was the 5th grade musical, and Friday was Field Day. Crazy! This was my first year of having three kids participating in Field Day, so I felt like I spent the whole day running between all three classes trying to watch as much as I could. The weather was not as hot as usual, so it was a pleasant day.

Sometime that week, as I was driving home I nearly ran over a turtle that was trying to cross the road. I drove around it, then stopped and walked back to move him out of the road so he wouldn't get hit by the next car to come along. Melaina was with me, and we both decided it would be funny to bring the turtle home to surprise Livian. He ended up living in our blow-up pool on the back deck for a couple days, until we decided it was time to let him go. He was pretty cute, for a turtle.

The last week of school went so fast. Monday was a holiday, then the girls had the whole week off of gymnastics, which made for an easy week! They did some fun things at school, like beach day, game day, etc. Friday was a half day, and that morning the 5th graders had a goodbye brunch, followed by an awards ceremony and graduation. We were having our garage sale that morning, so Tuell attended the awards thing while I stayed home to man the sale. (Our garage sale was quite successful; the most profitable one yet!)

Freedom Flight 2011

2011-05-31T16:57:00.000-05:00

Freedom Flight was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime event for Livian and the 59 other students who were chosen out of 1,200 entrants to be student ambassadors for the flight. The students, guardians and veterans, as well as six medics and a slew of media, met at 6 a.m. last Tuesday morning at the local high school to sign in and board buses for the trip to the airport. Tuell dropped Livian off, met up with us at home, then we all headed over to the airport to see her off. From the moment we exited the main thoroughfare into the terminal, we could see how huge this event was shaping up to be. The parking garage was so packed that we had to go to the very top level to find a parking space, and when we got inside the terminal to pick up our (fake) boarding passes to get through security, we were met with a line of hundreds of people trying to get in as well! I never imagined it would be so huge! But it was really neat to see so many of the community, students from local schools, local media personalities, etc., all there to experience the event.

It took us about an hour to finally get through security. We found Livian, her guardian (Mrs. Moose, her school principal), her veteran Mr. Ray Nuss, and the other student ambassador assigned to their "family" all chatting together in the designated lounge across from their gate. I was so happy to meet her veteran; he was SO sweet, and assured me repeatedly that they would take good care of Livian. I don't know how happy Livian was to have his hand on her shoulder guiding her around... but it made Mom feel better!

They had a little ceremony at the gate, then boarded. Tuell had a meeting at work so he left, but the girls and I stayed to watch the ceremonial water cannons as the plane left. (Since the principal was on the plane, they had special permission to be late to school!)
I was hoping to be able to insert Livian's write-up of her trip here, but she isn't done with it yet. Hopefully she will finish it soon! But basically, she said it was an awesome day, albeit a very tiring one. They rode buses to the various sites and got out to walk around at each one: WWII Memorial, Washington Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery. They were in DC about five hours, then they went back to the airport for their chartered flight home.

Unfortunately, Dallas was having major storms rolling through Tuesday evening (we got golf-ball sized hail and tons of tornado threats). Livian's flight had to circle several times on the way back in an attempt to wait out the storms so they could land, but they ran short of fuel and had to divert to Houston to refuel. They stayed on the ground there for a couple hours until the storms passed, then headed home. Their flight was supposed to get in at 9:30 p.m., but they didn't get in until 3 a.m.! They had some very tired students and 80- and 90-year old veterans on their hands!

I let Livian sleep in Wednesday morning and got her to school at 9:40, and amazingly she stayed awake through school and two hours of gymnastics that afternoon, with only minimal grouchiness. What an amazing experience for her!

Some additional photos from the school district here (and yes, that's a very aged Bob Dole in some of those pics).

And portions of an email from the school district:
----------
On May 24th history came to life for 60 GCISD students and 46 veterans who traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of the WWII inaugural Freedom Flight program. The flight was the culminating event of the program, which also involved a social studies curriculum, district wide competitions and a community wide celebration.

The media response has been outstanding starting with a KTVT CBS 11 crew on the flight; attendance by print and broadcast reporters at the send-off celebration; and more broadcast crews meeting us in Washington, D.C.

To date, there have been 18 media placements, reaching more than one million total impressions resulting in $88,713.76 in ad value. In addition, there were more than 144 Twitter posts which resulted in 1.7 million potential Twitter impressions. Please note the potential Twitter impressions include American Airlines original Twitter messages.

And we aren’t done yet! The Washington Post has asked for photos from the event and we are currently doing follow up. Another recap report will be sent out next week that includes all pending placements. WWII Freedom Flight is a program designed to give students a direct and enduring understanding of the connection between the rights and freedoms we enjoy today and the heroes whose sacrifices made them possible.

Freedom Flight is Tomorrow!

2011-05-23T12:02:00.001-05:00

This morning the girls came downstairs and turned on the TV while waiting for us to come down, and they were surprised to see a news story come on about the Freedom Flight tomorrow! You can see it here. Scroll to the bottom right where you see Video News, and click on the story with the American flag (you'll probably have to scroll to the right).

Cheap thrills & a spill

2011-05-20T15:31:00.001-05:00

Wednesday I went to Goodwill for its half-price day (aka, the day when all the crazies come out). I found a few things, stood in line for an hour to pay (!), and then headed out across the parking lot to my car. Halfway across the parking lot, my knee did its super fun trick of popping out and then not going back in. OUCH! Recall that this has happened once before, but I was at home, and Tuell managed to somehow get it to pop back in while I lay writhing on the bathroom floor trying not to pass out. This time I was on my own, and in a very public place!

I attempted to wiggle my painful discombobulated leg around as I stood there like a stork, but I couldn't get it to go back in. So then I thought if I could just get over to the curb and out of the traffic, then I could sit down and work on it. However, when my knee is in that state, I can't put ANY weight on it or I pass out from the pain. So there I was, stuck in the middle of the parking lot with cars piling up.

What was I to do? Well, the only thing I could do. I put down my purse and packages, and I very gingerly sat down. Yep, right there in the middle of the parking lot. By this time several people had gotten out of their cars and come over to assist (or to physically move me so they could get by?). While explaining to them that yes, I'll be fine, and no, I don't need an ambulance, I maneuvered my leg back and forth and finally *POP* -- back to normal at last. One of the men offered to drive me to my car, and when I declined, he helped me up, handed me my purse and packages, and watched me hobble sheepishly away.

This knee incident came completely out of nowhere. I've been doing exercises to get my legs strong, including lunges with weights, and I haven't had an inkling of pain for months. There was no warning at all -- one minute I'm walking just fine, the next minute I'm writhing in pain. So unpredictable! As expected, my knee swelled up like a balloon and has been very painful and unstable since then. I've worn my brace for stability, iced and elevated it as much as I can stand, and it's finally starting to feel a little better.

So yes, I will be having surgery, but not until the fall when the kids are back in school. If I did it now, I'd have to either find a babysitter or drag the kids to followup doctor visits, physical therapy, etc. It'll be much easier to wait. Until then, with every step I'll be wondering when it's going to do this again. Oh boy!

Thanks to a Veteran

2011-05-17T08:42:00.000-05:00

One of Livian's assignments to prepare for her trip to Washington DC was to write a thank-you letter to her veteran. She finished it last night, and I was so impressed that I had to share her letter! (Can you catch the reference to one of Grandpa Hood's war stories that she heard from Michelle's interview?!)

May 16, 2011

Dear Mr. Elsner,

I am so glad that I got you for my veteran! I think that we are going to have lots of fun in Washington DC together. I can’t wait!

I am writing this letter because of two simple words – I will. When a veteran says these words, they are not taking the job that they have been given lightly. Hidden behind those easy words is a meaning none of us will ever fully understand.

Those words mean commitment to their country that goes far beyond the rest of us. They will fight terrible battles, watching their friends being struck down left, right, and center for all of us at home with nothing to worry about but homework. They have enough courage to walk onto the battlefield knowing that they most likely will die, and fight their way through the battle that follows with the national anthem playing in their hearts. They sit up at night with their backs against a tree watching for the enemy while we doze in our beds. They have seen the wars we read about in our textbooks, and survived to tell the story again.

So today I am going to say two simple words also, and hope that you can read the secret message that I am hiding behind them – the message that tells you how proud you have made America, the message that shows you that I salute you and all others who have helped this country to survive, and the message that says “God bless America!”

Remember that America loves you and your friends who have made it possible for me to be sitting here today. Keep all this in mind as I say these empty, hollow words – thank you.

Livian P. Green

Gymnastics News

2011-05-12T08:38:00.000-05:00

Another year of gymnastics is coming to a close, and we have some changes ahead. Livian has decided to drop competitive gymnastics starting this summer, and instead move into a class called Flippers. They meet twice a week and focus mainly on tumbling. They don't compete, but they do have at least one performance at the end of the year (this year's class just performed for a retirement community on Monday). Livian is so happy she won't have to do bars and beam anymore, and her hours in the gym will be cut in half! I am pleased with this choice, and I think she will be much happier too. She also knows a couple girls in the class already, so that will definitely help with the transition.

Avalie was ready to move up to the next competitive level last year, but for myriad reasons we kept her back. But starting in June, she will be moving up to Level 5, and she is so excited to get to be with her friends from last year! Her hours in the gym will increase from six hours to 10 hours per week, but seeing how much she looks forward to going to practices, I think she will love it. She is quite the little gym rat!

Melaina will also be continuing gymnastics, moving into Training Level 3, which is a non-competitive team. She had a very exciting day yesterday during her class; she got her bridge down and kickover on the floor! She had an audience of several of the upper-level girls watching her, and when she did these new skills for the first time, she got a round of applause (much to her embarrassment!). It's so cute seeing such a little girl doing skills like that!

Freedom Flight Celebration

2011-05-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

The Freedom Flight was officially kicked off Monday night with an area-wide celebration at the local high school (see the Star-Telegram newspaper stories here and here). Livian had a meet-and-greet an hour before the festivities began, so Tuell took her to that and they got to meet the veteran she was matched up with for the flight. Livian says he's really nice, but they didn't get a whole lot of time to chat.

After the reception for the veterans and student ambassadors, everyone went outside (where the girls and I met up with Tuell and Livian) to watch two helicoptors fly over a few times. Then three men, including the superintendent of our schools, parachuted down from the helicoptors to where we were all waiting. Livian was excited to see several teachers from her school as we milled around, including her homeroom teacher, Mrs. Gilby (in the picture). Tuell also kept pointing out all these people from American that he works with (AA is a sponsor of the event). There were a lot of people there!

We were then herded into the gym for the program; the gym was so packed that they had an overflow room with a live feed in order to accomodate everyone. They introduced all the veterans with much fanfare, then the school superintendent spoke, as did the CEO of American Airlines, the granddaughter of Dwight Eisenhower, a medal of honor recipient, and a few more people. It was a long program, but interesting nonetheless. Livian had to sit up front with the other ambassadors and she did fine, but her sisters got pretty restless toward the end.

After the program ended, we went to find Livian's winning poem that was displayed near the gym. I cringed when I saw the misspellings (editor in me -- can't help it)! But I am so proud of my sweet Livian, and I am so excited she gets this awesome opportunity coming up on May 24!

House Party!

2011-05-10T13:48:00.000-05:00

A while ago, one of my neighbors introduced me to a really neat website, House Party. Basically you apply to be a host of whichever party you are interested in, and the associated company sends you a bunch of free products to give out to your friends. Great advertising for them, great fun for us!

I applied several weeks ago for a Singer sewing party, and I was surprised that I was chosen as a host on my first try! So Sunday evening we invited our small group over for a cookout/sewing party. While the guys grilled, we ladies went upstairs to play with the new machine I got to borrow from Joann's, the Singer Confidence Stylist! Of course, I had my other machines set up as well, so there was plenty of sewing time for everyone.

In addition to getting to borrow the brand new sewing machine, I was also sent a huge box filled with fabric, notions, patterns, decorations, and coupons. They also included instructions for a little project for your party, an accessories roll-up organizer. Everyone sewed one, including Avalie and Melaina (although they did theirs pre-party).

I can't wait to host another party through House Party!

PS: If anyone needs Joann's coupons, I've got a HUGE stack of them that expire May 29! I also have 15% off coupons for the Confidence sewing machine if anyone is in the market for one!

Roller Derby Queen

2011-05-03T17:01:00.001-05:00

After putting the girls to bed Friday night, I got it in my head that Melaina needed a special outfit for her skating party the next day. I found a picture of a roller blade on the internet and used it to make an applique for an old shirt we had, then added zebra-striped bias tape (which I made myself for the first time!) to the sleeves just for fun. Then I decided she needed some matching pants, but by now it was pretty late. So I grabbed some stretch pants out of her drawer and added ruffles to the bottom. I thought it turned out so cute! But then in the morning, I decided she needed a matching bow to complete the outfit. Yes, I think I have a sickness.

Melaina was a bit grouchy Saturday morning, but she perked up when it was time to go to the party. We got there about 30 minutes early to get settled, find our party table, and get the girls in skates. Traffic was horrible so our guests trickled in, but everyone was there by the time they called us to the party table. Our (not-so-impressive and irritatingly slow) hostess served ice cream, cake and drinks, then helped Melaina open her gifts. This was our first party where Tuell and I weren't scrambling to keep up with the kids and instead had someone else to do it, and it was so nice!

After our table time was up, the kids went back out to skate some more. Soon the announcer had the birthday kids go in the middle of the rink, and the rest of us circled around and sang happy birthday to them, then did the Hokey Pokey. Then it was back to skating, and our guests departed soon after.

One of Melaina's best friends, Karine, stayed for a long time, so she and Melaina had a blast skating together. Unfortunately Tuell nor I were watching them closely. Apparently they were in the center of the rink trying to give each other piggy back rides (!!!), and when Karine tried jumping onto Melaina's back, they both fell backward and crashed. Melaina's head cracked against that hard floor, and she of course started crying and couldn't get up. I rushed out there, picked her up and carried her off the rink. She cuddled in my arms, crying nonstop and complaining that her head hurt. We didn't know if her inability to control herself was just from being tired, or if was something more. So we decided we'd better go home!

Melaina cried most of the way home and couldn't calm down even once we were home, so I held her on my lap and she finally fell asleep. She slept on me for an hour or so, then when she woke up she cried and cried again, then threw up. By now I'm panicked thinking about head injuries, etc.! But we watched her carefully, and after dinner she finally started perking up. We are pretty sure she had a mild concussion. What a way to end a party!

Our new 6 year old

2011-05-02T20:50:00.000-05:00

Wednesday morning I was awoken early by a pitter-patter of little feet in the hallway, followed by heavy breathing in my ear, and then "Mommy, guess what! It's my birthday!!!"

Our new little 6 year old was giddy the whole day. She was SO excited to bring cupcakes for her class at school and lollipops for her gymnastics class that afternoon. It was too late after gymnastics to go out for her birthday dinner, so we waited until Friday when we had more time. She chose "the tortilla place" (aka Mercado Juarez) for her birthday meal, much to everyone's delight! YUM! She even agreed to let the waiters sing happy birthday to her!

We Have A WINNER!!!

2011-04-29T15:34:00.001-05:00

*Edited to add a new link with more information here.*

I am SOOO proud to announce that Livian is the winner of a very exciting district-wide "Expressions of Freedom" writing competition! This is a once-in-a-lifetime honor for her, as she gets to go to Washington DC as an ambassador for our school district to help honor WWII veterans.

Some snippets from the Freedom Flight website:

The Freedom Flight competition is part of a new program developed by Grapevine-Colleyville ISD (GCISD) in partnership with American Airlines. Select GCISD students will be chosen to serve as ambassadors on the Freedom Flight by entering in an “Expressions of Freedom” competition, which invites students to honor military and veterans through various media. For the May 24 flight, the group of up to 60 students will join World War II veterans to travel to Washington, D.C., aboard a chartered American Airlines 757 yellow-ribbon aircraft, “Flagship Freedom.” In addition to the World War II Memorial, the group will visit other important monuments, including the Korean and Vietnam war memorials, and the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.
So out of the 17 schools in our district, Livian was among the 50-60 students chosen for the flight; out of the 76+ entries from our school's 5th grade, she and one other girl from our school were chosen. In addition to the selected students and veterans, there will also be a film crew going along on the journey, making a documentary of the experience! Exciting!!

And to think that Livian almost didn't enter the competition. She was really nervous about flying to DC by herself if she won, but I encouraged her to enter anyway and not to worry about that yet. Whoops, time to worry! Seriously, I know she'll do fine, and it's such an amazing opportunity for her! Way to go, Livian!!!

Easter 2011

2011-04-28T10:44:00.000-05:00

Anyone want a boiled egg? We've got three dozen. Yep, each of the girls got her own dozen eggs to color on Saturday morning, and they sure had fun! (I think Daddy and Mommy had more fun than the girls though...)

Sunday morning Melaina was the first one up, so she took it upon herself to wake up everyone else because THE EASTER BUNNY CAME!!! And he left zillions of eggs all over the downstairs for the girls to find! The girls did their hunt, then looked through their baskets while they ate a quick breakfast.

We were sort of in a hurry, because we our church had some fun things planned and we needed to get there in time to participate. We were a little late for the breakfast, but we got there in time for the magician's show for the kids, and an art/storytime after that. Then, finally, it was egg hunting time! Avalie and Melaina hunted eggs first, followed by the bigger kids. Livian's group had to find eight eggs that were exactly the same (they had switched out tops/bottoms, etc.), then trade them in for a bigger prize (she chose a chocolate bunny).

Avalie and Melaina wanted to bring their American Girl dolls to church ... with their matching Easter dresses, of course!

After a good church service, we headed home for a feast of ham and baked potatoes, followed by a really, really long nap!

Avalie's birthday, continued

2011-04-21T13:21:00.000-05:00

After all the partiers left at 10 a.m., we took a little family trip to the library book sale before lunch. After lunch all of us just crashed and had a much-needed nap! When we got up, Avalie got to open the family gifts, and then we went to her choice of restaurant, Rainforest Cafe. Being Saturday night, we had about a 30 minute wait (just enough time for me to run down the mall to Bath & Body Works!). Dinner was nice, except they seated us next to the waterfall, and the girls kept getting wet!

Nana and Poppa had given Avalie a gift card to Claire's, so after dinner we took her there so she could pick out whatever she wanted. She chose earrings, of course! She chose two sets and brought them up to the cashier to pay for them. The cashier told her they were on a Buy Two Get One Free sale, so she got to go choose another set. She was so happy!

Happy 8th Birthday, Avalie!

2011-04-19T16:56:00.000-05:00

Avalie's 8th birthday party was themed "Girls Rock!" We had blow-up guitars, pink and purple streamers and other decorations hanging up downstairs to greet guests as they arrived Friday night. Our first order of business was a pizza dinner, followed by much giggling and high-pitched screaming as they played Nice Kitty while waiting for the last guest to arrive before we started our first planned activity.

We called our first game Strings, or Spiderweb. Tuell, Livian and I had tied the end of a skein of yarn to each of their goody bags (canvas bags from Hobby Lobby that I had embroidered with their names and added some embellishments), then hid each bag under the back deck. We then spent about 45 minutes making a big mess with the strings, going back and forth across the deck, around objects, around the other strings, etc. Then when we thought it was messy enough, we tied the other end of the string to a pencil and labeled it with each girl's name. The object was to wind your string onto your pencil and follow it to your goody bag. The girls really enjoyed this, and it was pretty funny to watch!

Once they found their goody bags, we used them for the next activity, a pinata. Everyone got to hit the pinata once before everything fell out (I hate it when pinatas take forever to break, so I was happy it was so quick!).

Next it was cake and ice cream time! I had used the graphic on Avalie's chosen plates/napkins to create her cake, a purple and pink cheetah print with stars on top. Not my best work, but the birthday girl liked it. After everyone finished eating, we gathered around the fireplace hearth to watch Avalie open her gifts.

Finally it was time for the most anticipated part of the party, the fashion show! I had created a sort of boutique in the computer/sewing room upstairs; I had most of our nicer dressup clothes hanging on a rack, and scarves, boas, hats and fancy shoes (and some of my heels) displayed. The girls were instructed to choose their outfits, have their makeup done (just eyeshadow and lipgloss), and come downstairs when they were ready. I turned on some cool music and had them line up, and one by one they paraded out and had their picture taken while they posed. I thought once through and they'd be done, but boy was I wrong! They kept going around and around the downstairs "track" coming up with different poses each time it was their turn, and they didn't want to stop! Such glamour girls!

We moved the party into the family room where the music was playing, and played freeze dance and then had a dance contest. The dance contest caused a little bit of friction because Avalie and her two gymnastics friends chose to be one team, and her school friends were on the other. The school friends thought it was so unfair that the gymnasts were doing splits, kicks, walkovers, actual dance moves, etc., so we quickly had to end that game before things got nasty (well, as nasty as 2nd graders can get...). It was time to change into jammies and calm down for the night anyway, so all ended well.

Avalie had chosen Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale for the late night entertainment. Some of the girls didn't seem too interested, so I brought out some cardboard guitars I was saving for the morning activity, and they were content coloring those. We had two of the girls go home before bed, but the other five stayed. We had them upstairs in their sleeping bags at 10:30, but of course the talking and giggling continued. Finally at midnight I went and layed down in the hall outside their room with the door open, so they stopped talking and finally fell asleep. Phew!

Long, Wacky Sunday

2011-04-13T20:13:00.000-05:00

The girls' last gymnastics meet was this past Sunday at noon in Allen, which is nearly an hour away. We let the girls watch a movie on the way, hoping it would help Livian's jitters. When we arrived, she was still pretty nervous, but once we got inside and saw the gym and her teammates, excitement replaced the fear.

The meet went well overall. The only glitch was the beam scoring; the judge was particularly harsh in her judging, so all the girls scored well below what they had been scoring. A lot of the girls were pretty down about this, but I think most of us parents used it as a lesson in why scoring in gymnastics is flawed and is yet another reason not to focus on the score. At Monday's practice their coaches talked a lot about this, and really did great complimenting the girls for their accomplishments and improvements. That's why I love this gym!

On the way home from the meet we stopped at the American Girl store at the Galleria so Avalie and Melaina could choose their big birthday gift! They had so much fun trying to decide which doll looked most like them, and even Livian had fun walking around looking at all the displays and scenes they had set up around the store. Avalie wanted her doll's ears pierced, so we got to go upstairs to the salon for that. We got to watch some of the workers pampering other girls' dolls in the little salon chairs set up on the counters. Too cute! We passed on the AG bistro for dinner, and opted instead to walk around the Galleria and get food at the food court. I had forgotten how big that mall is! So by the time we decided on a place to eat and walked all over creation, we were pretty beat. Time to go home and go to bed!

This week has been spent preparing for Avalie's 8th birthday sleepover on Friday night! We also had to get Livian packed and ready for Adventure Camp. The whole 5th grade left this morning for a three-day science camp about an hour away. Livian was bouncing off the walls this morning! We're sure to get her back on Friday afternoon nice and grumpy, just in time for Avalie's sleepover. Oh boy.

Busy Weekend, part 1

2011-04-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a free day for us, so we decided to make it a Six Flags day -- well, morning anyway. We got there soon after it opened, stayed a couple hours, and went home in the early afternoon. It wasn't crowded at all, so we got to ride pretty much anything we wanted to. So different from our last visit during spring break! The girls' favorite ride by far was the antique cars. We had to go on it a couple times so they all could drive at least once. I got the task of riding with Melaina, which meant sitting next to her and pushing the foot pedal down the whole time while she drove. Foot cramp! But she took her job very seriously... until the end, when she took over the pedal and gave me whiplash! She giggled and giggled. Silly girl.

We spent Saturday afternoon resting, playing, and decluttering in preparation for our upcoming garage sale. After dinner we took the girls over to our favorite bluebonnet patch for our annual romp through the weeds. The girls got to wear their new Easter dresses for the first time; they got to choose their fabrics and patterns for the most part. Except for a very bad ant that bit Melaina's ankle, and a couple cranky moments, we had a great time frolicking through the bluebonnets. Only found one ladybug, however. Bummer.

Thisters Mini Reunion

2011-04-04T20:48:00.000-05:00

Saturday my Seattle-based sister Tracy and her family were headed to Disneyworld for their spring break, and they had a four-hour layover at DFW -- just enough time for a mini reunion! Michelle and her family grabbed some Schlotsky's sandwiches on their way up to our house while I went by the airport to pick up Tracy and her clan. It wasn't a long visit, but we all had a blast getting to see each other for a bit!

Texas Trash Off 2011

2011-04-03T17:18:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning we got up bright and early for the annual Texas Trash Off, where volunteers work together to beautify our city by cleaning up trash around the local parks. Livian had spent the night at a friend's house for a birthday party and wasn't to be picked up until 10 a.m., so Tuell, Melaina, Avalie and I went to the central meeting place to get our trash bags and gloves. When we got there, we were happy to discover that Avalie's best friend Lauren was there with her girl scout troup, so we got to spend the morning with them! Avalie and Lauren were in heaven!

That morning as we were getting ready to go, Melaina was her usual strong-willed self and refused to wear pants, so all morning long as she climbed in and out of bushes searching for trash, she got completely scraped up. By the end of the morning, her legs were bloody and she was in tears. Perhaps next year she will remember this and take our advice to wear pants ... ?

At 10:00 I drove over to pick up Livian from the party and brought her back to the park so she could participate in the cleanup. When we met up with everyone else, we discovered they had taken a break; rather than picking up trash, they were studying these little "lion ant" bugs in the sand. It was pretty cute seeing Tuell crouched on the ground with all these little girls around him watching him play with a bug.

Around 11:30 we made our way back to the central meetup place, where the city was serving hot dogs, chips and drinks to the volunteers. Melaina had had about enough of the volunteer work and had a little meltdown, but she perked up after discovering they were out of Sprite, so she got to drink her first Dr Pepper. What a treat! It was a great start to an even greater day. More to come...

A couple cuties

2011-03-30T12:57:00.000-05:00

Look who lost another tooth! It's kind of hard to see because her bottom tooth pretty much fills the gap. The tooth fairy made a much-anticipated visit last night.

Last night Melaina was insistent upon sleeping in her book basket. Looks comfy, eh?

Feast or famine

2011-03-26T22:27:00.000-05:00

After weeks of no editing work whatsoever, this week's day planner doth overflow. Yes, I'm working on a Saturday night.

Haircutting weekend

2011-03-21T09:23:00.001-05:00

Four out of the five of us got our hair chopped this weekend. It's about time! We were all looking pretty shaggy. Avalie's cut was the most drastic; she was so excited to donate her ponytail! (Excuse the before picture -- her hair had been in pigtails all day. It's usually not that wavy/stringy!)

Six Flags Drama

2011-03-17T18:27:00.000-05:00

Well, we did it. We succombed to peer pressure and bought season tickets to Six Flags. Everyone's doing it! And why not? We drive right past it every time we go to church. It only took us 11 years of living here to cave.

We learned an important lesson; do NOT go to Six Flags during spring break! Total craziness. Luckily we knew how to avoid the traffic trying to get into the park from the north, so we probably saved an hour of wait time right off the bat. But once inside the park, it was a mess. Hardly room to walk, loonnnnggg lines at everything. At least the weather was nice! The first thing we did was go get our season pass pictures taken, which was a 45 minute wait. Then we walked through Looney Town and rode a few of the little kid rides. As we walked out of Looney Town toward the next area of the park, our day took a really weird turn.

The girls wanted to ride on a hot air balloon ride that fortunately didn't have a long line. We got to the front of the line, and Tuell was able to get on with the two little girls, but Livian and I were forced to wait for the next round. As she and I were going through the gate afterward to meet up with Tuell, we noticed a commotion right outside the gate we were exiting. Looking down, I saw a woman sitting on the ground holding a very bloody little boy. A bunch of people were crowded around her looking around frantically not knowing quite what to do. As I walked by and managed to peek in at her, I realized I knew the woman from school; Dixie is Melaina's homeroom mom. I don't know her well at all, but since she was surrounded by strangers, I thought at least maybe a familiar face might be helpful in some way.

Turns out Dixie, her husband, and their three-year-old son Drew and kindergarten son Dylan were waiting in line for the ride we had just been on, and the boys were climbing on the rails. Drew climbed up to sit on the top, and before Dixie or her husband could grab him, he fell straight back, cracking the back of his head on the concrete.

So here was Drew bleeding profusely from a head wound in the middle of the park, an incompetent teenager attendant looking panicked, and a crowd of people all standing there staring. Dixie had a paper towel pressed to his head trying to stop the bleeding, but it didn't seem to be working. Pretty soon she told her husband to take Drew because she was about to pass out because of all the blood. She managed to make it to a grassy area before she passed out, but she fell some of the way and scraped up her eye. So while her husband held Drew and continued putting pressure on the wound, I catered to Dixie and watched out for Dylan. She was OK, but she was very rattled and couldn't sit up without getting lightheaded again.

Finally the first aid people got there and loaded them up to take them to the front of the park, where an ambulance waited to take Drew to the hospital. Dixie decided to leave their older son Dylan and their stroller with us so they could concentrate on taking care of Drew. So Dylan spent a couple hours in the park with us, much to Melaina's delight! By the time we were finished at the park, his family was home from the hospital, so we were able to drop him off at home. Drew ended up getting three staples in his head, and Dixie had a nice scrape under her eye. Dixie and I both thought it was amazing how Tuell and I "just happened" to be there when they needed help. Pretty cool.

Sickie, round 2

2011-03-15T10:03:00.000-05:00

Spring break is here, and so is another round of illness. This time it's Livian with the fever. She had a low fever on and off all weekend, then Monday morning she woke up with a 103.7 temperature. Advil has helped tremendously. She seems OK this morning, so we are hoping the worst is over and we can get on with our spring break plans!

Not that we had huge plans this week. We searched and searched these last few weeks for someplace to go, but standby seats fill up quickly. We considered St. Louis, Washington DC, New Mexico, Arizona, New York, and of course, Seattle and Denver ... but in the end, we're staying home because of lack of open flights. We bought season passes to Six Flags, so whenever Livian is better, we plan to go there once or twice this week. We hope to go to the dollar theater today to see Megamind, and maybe hang out at the mall a while as well. We lead such exciting lives.

Oh, one more bit of sickie news. Tuell injured his big toe in a soccer game two weeks ago. It turned some lovely shades of blue and purple and caused quite a bit of pain, but despite my encouragement to go get it x-rayed, he refused. Finally, after two weeks of hobbling around, he went to the doctor yesterday. Just as I suspected, it's broken. He is now sporting an awesome hard-soled shoe for a few weeks.

Mango's Mini-Me

2011-03-10T08:45:00.000-06:00

Furminator = best animal brush on the planet.

Sickie

2011-03-09T10:02:00.000-06:00

I got a call Thursday morning from the school nurse; Avalie had a fever. I was so proud of her for going to the nurse! She tends to downplay her pains/illnesses, but both Tuell and I had told her that morning that there was no need to sit through school feeling bad (she had woken up with a headache, but still wanted to go to school). Anyway, she came home, took some Advil and napped. She felt better that afternoon, so I went ahead and took all three girls to a friends' roller skating birthday party that evening. Little did I know she only felt better because of the meds...

Avalie's fever returned as soon as the Advil wore off, so she missed school again Friday, as well as gymnastics that afternoon. Saturday morning was their second gymnastics meet, and she SO wanted to go (so much so that she refused to tell us how she was feeling when we asked her Saturday morning, instead giving us a sly smile!). Since they only have three per year, and she wanted to go so badly, we gave her Advil and let her compete. She did nearly as well as usual, but we could definitely tell she was not up to par. But she didn't seem to mind; she just loved being there!

Sunday I stayed home from church with Avalie as well as Melaina, who was a snot-oozing mess. Finally Monday morning Avalie awoke with a normal temperature, and has been OK ever since. However, now Livian is complaining of the same symptoms. So far no fever, but we shall see...

Little Charlie

2011-03-03T10:28:00.001-06:00

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting the new son of my first college roomate! Sandy and I both went potluck our freshman year at ACU and ended up as roommates, and we have kept in contact over all these years. We now live only about 15 minutes apart, so we get together for lunch every couple months. I got to attend her wedding several years ago, and her baby shower a couple months ago. I love being able to witness all these major milestones in her life!

She and her husband had struggled to have children, so little Charlie is an extra special blessing. He is sweet as can be!

Melainaism

2011-02-27T19:58:00.001-06:00

Melaina: Mommy, my tooth hurts.

Mommy: Well, maybe it's loose.

Melaina: (Pauses to check) ... Nope, it's still glued.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First gymnastics meet of 2011

2011-02-24T12:30:00.000-06:00

The girls had their first gymnastics meet Sunday afternoon and they both did an awesome job! Avalie scored in the 9s for floor, beam and vault, and she got an 8.9 on beam (2nd team all-around). Livian got 9s on floor and vault; in fact, she got a 9.6 on vault, the highest on her team! Unfortunately the video of her vaults was not great quality because people kept walking in front of our camera. Ugh! And as you will see, Level 4 gymnasts don't actually go over a vault; they go through the same motions, but it's not until Level 5 that they actually use the vault. Weird, I know.

Their next meet is in two weeks.

Epiphany!

2011-02-18T13:46:00.000-06:00

At last I know why I have big hips!

When taking a shower, I often use the rest of my shampoo to lather myself. Well, yesterday, I read what was written on the bottle: "For extra volume and body." No wonder it is so difficult to keep my weight under control.

From now on I will use dishwashing liquid for showering. It claims: "Dissolves fat that is otherwise difficult to remove."

(Borrowed from fb)

Be Mine

2011-02-17T09:17:00.000-06:00

Monday the girls had their Valentine's Day parties at school, so I attempted to split myself three ways and attend each party. (Oh how I wish they would not have the parties all at the same time!) I went to Melaina's classroom first, and they were so cute and quiet, just eating their snacks and looking around sheepishly while opening their valentines.

Then I went to Avalie's classroom, and the noise level went up slightly. They did a cute game consisting of picking up as many conversation hearts with chop sticks as they could in 30 seconds. Still, the second graders mostly sat in their seats and sweetly went about their game.

Then I went over to Livian's classroom. CHAOS!!! Those fifth graders were just spastic, in and out of their seats and talking incessantly. Such a contrast to the kindergarteners! They were playing a modified version of Minute to Win It (which we had looked up on the internet before the party because we had no idea what it was), so there were ping pong balls bouncing around and cups flying from the cup stacking race. It was crazy, but the kids seemed to be having a blast!

The girls had gymnastics that evening, and Tuell had informed me that I was not allowed to come home during their practice because he was working on a surprise. Indeed! We walked in after gymnastics, and we were surprised to see that he had prepared a nice Valentine's Day meal for his four ladies. After we were seated at the candlelit table, our waiter took our drink orders and brought out the first course (salad and other veggies), followed by the main course (manicotti, broccoli/cauliflower, and bread sticks). The girls LOVED it and felt so special! At the end of the meal, our waiter offered a choice of two desserts (ice cream or cherry cheesecake). So fancy and fun!

Ice, Snow, and Super Bowl

2011-02-17T08:49:00.000-06:00

The first week of February was downright crazy for North Texas. The weather forecasters warned of an incoming cold front Monday night, and sure enough, around midnight the sleet and freezing rain started, followed by snow, snow, and more snow. The kids ended up missing four days of school that week, much to their delight! Tuell's schedule was messed up as well; he stayed home Tuesday, but went into work sporatically the next three days and worked from home some as well. It was just too cold for the kids to go out and play for long, so the girls managed to play inside together quite nicely for most of the week. We did a lot of crafts, played games, and ate Smores a couple times that week. They only started getting cabin fever on Friday -- and I did too!

Melaina loves Smores!

We had a few days of better weather (and driving conditions), much to the delight of all the football fans trying to come into town for the Super Bowl. Cowboys Stadium is right down the street from our church, so we witnessed first hand how crazy things got with all those out-of-towners, plus the bad weather on top of that! We had a little Super Bowl party at our friends' house that Sunday evening with our small group Bible study friends, and I must say, it was a little strange watching something on TV that was going on live just down the street. I was so glad when the Super Bowl hoopla was over and we could stop hearing about it every time we turned on the news.

Some of the ladies at the Super Bowl party (crafting instead of watching!

The next Tuesday night the bad weather hit again, and the kids were off that Wednesday. It's been decent ever since though; in fact, this week it has been near 80 degrees.

That's Texas for you.

Avalie's Shiner

2011-02-02T20:50:00.000-06:00

Sunday afternoon the girls were playing outside, enjoying the last bit of nice weather before all the cold and ice hit. Livian had this brilliant idea to teach Avalie how to sword fight ... with a broom handle. Apparently she did one of those cool 360 degree swipes with her sword, and didn't see that Avalie was standing a bit too close. Avalie got clocked pretty hard right on the brow bone of her left eye, leaving a nice goose egg.

We spent the next 24 hours watching the bruise slide from her eyebrow down into her eyelid. It has been tempting to break out the purple and blue eyeshadow to make her a matching set.

Seattle Weekend

2011-01-24T09:24:00.001-06:00

Last week the girls had a four-day weekend (MLK day Monday, plus a teacher work day Tuesday), so we took the opportunity to go up to Seattle for a visit. The flights were looking less than great Friday night, but we went ahead to the airport thinking we’d get bumped from the first flight. Somehow we all got on, and arrived very late Friday night. Thankfully the girls slept a bit on the plane… but that two-hour time change is always hard!

Saturday we mostly just stayed around Mom’s house, with the girls playing with the Stephens zoo. We went over to Tracy’s for dinner that night and got to meet their new puppy, Bella, a long-haired Chihuahua. So cute!!!

Sunday after church we met Tracy’s family at the peanut place for lunch. Then Tuell and I took a trip to Fred Meyer for some shoe shopping. I guess I had been a little distracted as I was packing for four people, because somehow I managed to forget to pack my shoes! I had the heels I had worn on the plane and to church, but my walking shoes were still sitting at home in my closet. Doh! Great excuse for buying new shoes, right?

The weather was surprisingly nice on Sunday afternoon, so we took the girls for a walk down to my old junior high and to the park to play. Fortunately I had thought ahead to bring a couple baggies for the girls to put “treasures” in – all three love finding and collecting random stuff they find on the ground wherever we are. They found all sorts of stuff around the school, much to their delight!

Monday Tracy, Mom and I went to the fabric store, while Dad, Tuell and the girls went to the lake at Coulon Park to pester the ducks, play in the sand, etc. The wind was super cold, and of course despite Tuell's warning, Melaina got completely soaked. After we were done at the fabric store we met them at the lake for lunch at Ivar's, and Tracy came to the rescue with some of Addison's old sweatpants she had in the car. Melaina looked a bit silly wearing Uncle Addison's pants, but at least she was dry and warm!

Monday night we went over to Tracy's again for dinner, and we got to see Mikaela for a bit (she had been at a church retreat all weekend). Then it was back to Mom's for bedtime. We took the 3 p.m. flight home Tuesday, arriving well after the girls' bedtime. I gave them the option of sleeping in Wednesday and going to school late, but Livian and Avalie wanted to get to school on time. I let Melaina sleep until 8:30 and had her at school by 9:15. I felt a little guilty keeping her home, but I also figured she'd have been useless at school without the extra sleep!

Last week of 2010

2011-01-10T22:27:00.000-06:00

We were on our second week of no school and no work, and the natives were getting restless. So we tried to find some fun activities that would be fun but also burn up some energy. All three girls had a blast roller skating at the local rink one day.

However, Melaina was done pretty quickly (I think the skates were hurting her feet). But she found other ways to entertain herself... and everyone else around her.

We wanted to do something special and memorable on New Year's Eve, so the whole family participated in making homemade pizza. Everyone got to put on their own toppings, and I must say, we made some delicious pizza. We let the girls stay up a bit later than usual, but none of us stayed up to ring in the new year. Welcome, 2011!

Christmas Morning!

2011-01-10T21:31:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve

2011-01-10T21:21:00.001-06:00

We followed tradition and opened all the remaining gifts from family on Christmas Eve. The girls had bought each other a Webkinz, and it was so fun to see not only the recipient's face, but the look of pure joy on her sisters' faces when they saw how much the others liked their gifts.

Livian had been so excited to give Tuell and me our gifts that she had made. For me, she had sewn a teddy bear from our scrap drawer, and I was very impressed with her creativity and proud of her sewing skills!

For Tuell, she had painted a glass vase with several different scenes of her and Tuell on a beach playing together. She had spent several afternoons working to get all the details just right, and the final product was awesome!

Countdown to Christmas 2010

2011-01-10T21:00:00.000-06:00

The girls spent the last few days before Christmas continually asking how many more hours they had left to wait, in between playing nicely with each other and being as silly as possible.

Thursday we invited Michelle and her family up for a little holiday cookout. Michelle, Ally and I roamed Goodwill for a bit that afternoon while the kids and dads played the Wii. We enjoyed teasing Andrew about his Justin Bieber hairdo (he's growing it out), and making silly distorted pictures of everyone in the family on my phone. Yes, we provide quality entertainment at our house.

Christmas #1

2011-01-10T20:51:00.000-06:00

Wednesday before Christmas Bo, Becky and Jade came through on their way to Indiana and stayed with us overnight. We were able to share presents with each other while they were here.

2011-01-10T20:40:00.000-06:00

The week before Christmas was relaxing and a lot of fun. Tuell had taken the whole two weeks of Christmas and New Years off, so we got in some good quality family time. He worked hard off and on fixing up the shed, which had started rotting and looking really nasty, and the girls enjoyed unlimited play time! We let them open one gift from family each evening, so they had a bit more time to play with each present than when they are all opened at once. (This picture was taken the Sunday morning before Christmas, wearing their Christmas dresses.)

Tuesday morning our playgroup (which I don't often attend because all my kids are in school now!) had its annual Christmas party/book exchange at McDonald's. I could definitely tell my kids didn't quite fit in anymore; instead of playing in the playland, they all three sat and quietly read their books, ignoring the preschool mayhem behind them.

My next project?

2010-12-18T19:43:00.000-06:00

Is this not the coolest quilt EVER?!

Lookie what I found!

2010-12-16T10:46:00.000-06:00

I found this gem at an estate sale this morning. I've been looking for one of these forever! It's a Kenner Tree Tots Treehouse from the 70s, just like the one I had when I was little! It's in really good shape considering its age; the table top sticker is pretty much gone, and the cardboard insert in the doghouse is missing. And I need to go on ebay and find the car and the mom and dad. But the swing and stairs are intact, and the elevator works!

What are we going to do with that girl?

2010-12-16T10:39:00.000-06:00

Melaina is still having clothing issues, and it's gotten to the point that I am just letting her find anything she's willing to wear just so she'll get dressed. It has made for some interesting outfits. Sunday morning for church she wore all pink, with tap shoes. Monday morning for school she went with stripes ... all over. Yes, I'm taking pictures so she can groan at me later and complain, "Why did you let me out in public like that?!" Heehee.

Green Gymnasts

2010-12-09T12:43:00.000-06:00

Last night was a parent watch night at gymnastics, meaning we got to sit in the gym (rather than the usual parent room behind mirrored glass) to watch. I managed to catch a few videos of the girls. Well, two out of the three anyway.

Melaina has a double ear infection and therefore didn't participate in her class this week. Sunday night she was awake pretty much the whole night crying in pain because her ear hurt. I took her to the doctor Monday morning, and he said both ears were infected, not just the one she was complaining about! She is on antibiotics and has missed two days of school this week. She's back at school, but one ear still hurts her quite a bit. Anyway, enjoy the videos!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-06T22:19:00.000-06:00

Somehow Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year. I remember working hard on Livian's ostrich costume, and when I turned around, it was time to head to Abilene! How does that work?!

We arrived Wednesday around lunchtime and had our traditional Thanksgiving meal then. We had yummy turkey and gravy and all the fixin's, of course, but my account wouldn't be complete without mentioning the weird raw squash concoction that Rho made. :)

Later that afternoon we went over to ACU for our annual grandkids/family picture. The kids were amazingly cooperative, and we got some pretty good shots.

Thanksgiving day our whole clan went over to the Civic Center downtown to help feed those less fortunate. The kids had a blast keeping track of how many people they helped. The local news did a story on the volunteer effort, and Jade got on TV!

Gaylord Texan ICE!

2010-12-06T21:46:00.001-06:00

The week of Thanksgiving all five of us had the week off, so we took the opportunity to do something fun as a family. The Gaylord Texan resort was having its annual ice display, which we'd heard was pretty cool (get it? bwahaha!). It was in the 70s that Tuesday, so we felt a bit silly taking our heavy winter coats and hats, but we didn't feel nearly as silly as the people who were wearing shorts and flipflops in a tent kept at a frigid 9 degrees! At the entrance of the display, they provided everyone with big ugly blue parkas to help keep warm, but even with my huge winter coat and the parka, I still got chilled!

One of the most interesting things there was the big ice slide. Tuell took the girls and stood in line while I waited at the bottom to take pictures. However, once they got in line with all the other people wearing identical parkas, I lost track of them and missed pictures of Livian. I did manage to get a video of Avalie in her "wild" ride down the slide (very few people actually slid down the slide without having to pull themselves along with their heels!). Not surprisingly, Melaina got up to the top of the slide and promptly refused to go down, so poor Tuell missed his chance and had to walk back down the steps with her.

While thawing out from our excursion, we decided to explore the Gaylord. They had it super decorated for Christmas, so the girls enjoyed walking around and seeing all the fun decorations, especially the life-sized gingerbread house covered in real candy. I liked the longhorn eating Livian's hair.

I Heart Swagbucks!

2010-12-02T09:42:00.000-06:00

Wow, I'm such a bargain geek. And it seems to be getting worse with age.

I discovered something a few months back, but I've been waiting to blog about it until I knew that it was legit and worth the time and effort. (And because I'm slightly embarrassed that I'm so cheap and seem to only talk about all the bargains I find.)

I don't remember exactly how I came across it, but it's called Swagbucks. Basically it's a search engine like google, except that it randomly spits out swagbucks as you go about your daily web searches, which you can then cash in for prizes. Since I love poking around on the web anyway, I've been using it instead of google for the last few months just to see if it really works. Well, as of yesterday, I've earned $45 in Amazon gift cards and $15 in iTunes gift cards! Woohoo, free money!

The Terrible 5's?

2010-11-18T13:21:00.000-06:00

If I box up Melaina and stick a stamp on her forehead, do you think the post office would ship her someplace for me?

For the last two weeks Melaina has been in some funky kind of mood, and it all revolves around her clothes. (Do you remember the Year of the Swimsuit? Similar, but not nearly as cute.) This child has drawers and closets jammed full of clothes, and yet she cannot find a thing to wear. Correction: She cannot find a thing she's willing to wear. Cue parental screaming.

At first we thought it was just a softness thing; she hates jeans and any other stiff type of fabric. She has plenty of knit clothing, but apparently that's not entirely the solution. Some knit clothes are too tight, too loose, feel funny, feel crunchy, are itchy, are tickly, you get the picture. So each morning she throws a big crying fit because she can't find something to wear, as well as each evening when she puts on her pajamas, as well as yesterday when she was supposed to don her leotard for gymnastics, as well as any other time she feels like changing her clothes (which can be up to five times a day).

After days and days of trying to help her, begging her to get dressed, pleading with her to PLEASE JUST GET DRESSED, I'm taking a new approach. Leave it entirely up to her. Don't mention a word about her clothes. Let her do whatever she needs to do until this phase passes. And hope that she puts on more than just panties when we need to leave the house.

Earlier this week she wore the same pair of pants to school two days in a row, because it was the only pair that met her bizarre approval. She nearly wore said pants to her gymnastics class, until her little friend convinced her to change about three minutes before class started. She's been wearing mismatched clothes for two weeks; I do wonder what her kindergarten teacher thinks of us.

But no matter. At least she's dressed.

Knee Trauma Drama

2010-11-14T21:17:00.000-06:00

Hoo boy. Just when you think things are looking up...

My knee has been behaving quite well since my physical therapy. I've been keeping up with the exercises, and it hasn't given me much trouble and has not given out in weeks. So imagine my surprise when, with no warning whatsoever, Saturday afternoon I took a step across the bathroom floor and my knee popped out just like the good ole' days. Yah, except this time it DIDN'T POP BACK IN!!! This was a first for me, and it was not fun. Not at all.

I immediately tried to take a step on it to prevent myself from falling, and the pain caused me to start passing out. Fortunately Tuell was nearby and came running. He helped me lay down, and I layed there fighting nausea (it was a really gross feeling!) and trying not to pass out completely. I tried several times to sit up so I could try to figure out how to pop it back in, but each time I sat up, I started passing out again and had to lay back down. Since we didn't really know what to do, Tuell started slowly bending my knee back and forth. It hurt like crazy! The girls, who were all standing around watching, helped by bringing a wet washcloth and ice water. Such sweet girls! Finally one of the times Tuell was straightening my leg, it popped back to its normal position. My nausea went away fairly quickly, but I was left shaky and near tears.

I iced my knee for a while and wore my brace the rest of the day, but of course it was very painful. Today the pain was a little better, but it is still unstable and still feels like it could pop out again any time. Recall that my orthopedic surgeon said I can avoid surgery as long as I can put up with the pain. After that episode, I'm starting to rethink the whole surgery thing.

First craft show

2010-11-09T13:34:00.000-06:00

Saturday the girls' elementary school had its annual fall festival, and this year they decided to try adding some vendors to the mix. No one really knew what to expect, if people would buy, etc., but it turned out to be pretty successful. The whole event was outside in the school's fields, and unfortunately it was windy that day. I had some trouble getting my displays set up because they kept blowing over, but with my trusty packing tape and giant bag of safety pins, we managed to get everything to stay put.

Livian was super excited that I had a booth set up, and spent almost the whole time in the booth with me. Melaina did too, but not for the same reason. She has had a cold, so we had given her less than half a dose of Benedryl earlier that day. Usually I can give her that dosage and she is OK, but for some reason this time it completely knocked her out! She slept in one of our chairs at the booth for over an hour during the festival. Poor thing!

I didn't really sell much until the last hour, and I was so glad that it picked up. I made well over the vendor fee that I had to pay to participate, so I'm happy. And I got my name out there and handed out a ton of business cards. Now what to do with all my leftover inventory...

Oh, and please admire my handy cash apron I made myself. Came in quite handy -- no cash box to keep track of!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T12:47:00.000-05:00

We had quite a Halloween weekend. Friday night we went to the elementary school's trunk or treat, Saturday night Avalie went with her friend to their church's trunk or treat, then Sunday night was our church's trunk or treat. We are now so loaded down with candy that we can't get out of the house.

Avalie decided weeks (months?) ago that she wanted to be a fairy this year for Halloween, and she was insistent that she be a brown and orange fairy. Apparently it's a friend of Tinkerbell's; she showed me a picture in a book she had. So I whipped up that costume, and then Melaina decided she also wanted to be a fairy, but green and pink. Simple, since I already had the pattern out.

Then there's Livian. Nothing is ever easy with that child, is it? She decided she wanted to be ... an ostrich jockey. Yup.

It took both Tuell's and my brains to come up with her costume, but we are pretty proud of the way it turned out. And judging from all the attention Livian got everywhere she went, I think other people were pretty impressed!

Catch up

2010-11-01T12:35:00.000-05:00

October has been one seriously crazy month. On top of making costumes for all three girls, I've also been preparing for a craft show at our elementary school this coming Saturday. I am nearly done sewing, but I still need to make signs and price everything. This is fun, but I sure will be glad when it's over!

Two Fridays ago, the kindergarten classes went on a field trip to a petting farm, and both Tuell and I decided to chaperone. We were in charge of Melaina and two other little girls, and they were so funny. Melaina and one of the other girls wanted nothing to do with the animals; they certainly didn't want to touch them! We watched a live animal show, took a hay ride, had a picnic lunch, and let them play on the playground. My favorite part of the day was getting to hold a baby piglet. He must have liked me, because he fell asleep in my lap! At the end of the day, everyone got to choose a pumpkin to take home. It was a good (albeit very smelly) day.

More Knee Knews

2010-10-15T22:02:00.000-05:00

Never thought I'd say this, but these last three weeks of physical therapy were quite enjoyable. The people there were great, both the PT folks and the other broken people. I found it hilarious that the majority of the people there seemed to have come straight from the nursing home! They were so sweet. I really enjoyed racing the old men on the exercise bikes and teasing the lady whose main "exercise" was to basically just turn her head.

My first day of PT, they did some strength tests. Turns out my injured leg is 30% weaker than my good one. Eeek. I guess I'd been favoring it more than I realized. But you know, when using your bad knee causes it to grind, make icky popping noises and give out, you tend to start babying it. So I spent the last three weeks working hard trying to see if strengthening it would help stabilize it enough for me to go without surgery. Talk about motivation. After all my hard work, I only gained a little strength, but the PT guy said that's normal because the leg has such big muscles that it takes time (a lot more time than just three weeks). My knee hasn't given out for a couple weeks now, so perhaps there is hope.

I went back to the ortho doc today, and he basically said that surgery can be postponed as long as I can live with the pain/swelling/discomfort. And yes, I actually paid him for that diagnosis.

So now my job is to get my knee as strong as possible. Glad I have lots of ice packs.

Happy October!

2010-10-04T16:13:00.002-05:00

Cookin' at the Flea Market

2010-09-23T16:25:00.000-05:00

Saturday we needed something to entertain us, so we took a little drive up to McKinney for the Third Monday Trade Days. We had never taken the girls to a flea market, and we were pleased that they seemed to really enjoy themselves! Of course, it was HOT, so we treated everyone to her own special fruity slush to help keep cool and hydrated. Then we let them choose one thing to buy, and it was hard for them to narrow it down! Melaina ended up with a pelican Beanie Baby, Avalie got a new bottlecap necklace, and Livian got a picker-upper/grabber thing.

The highlight of the market was the animal aisle, where all the dog breeders had their puppies in pack-n-plays ready to be adopted. We ended up spending a whole lot of time cooing at the puppies!

The girls lasted nearly three hours before completely wilting. I was really proud of them! And we are all looking forward to our next trip to this flea market!

Livianism

2010-09-17T08:46:00.002-05:00

Our conversation this morning over breakfast:

"I like slightly wavy hair, not puffy like yours. I don't mean to insult you, I just don't want that on my head."

Knee Knews

2010-09-15T13:46:00.003-05:00

After much research, I finally settled on an orthopedic specialist. My neighbor Kim is having both knees replaced in November, so with her encouragement I called and made an appointment with her doctor. Friday I went in and let him poke around on my knee, wiggle it this way and that, attempt to dislocate it, and other fun things. He determined that it was definitely loose, but he wanted an MRI done. I was able to get into the imaging place that morning, which was actually kind of a peaceful event. It consisted of 30 minutes of me laying still and relaxing while a big machine made weird noises around me, and then I was done.

Saturday I woke up unable to walk without looking like a disabled freak. I'm guessing it was caused by all the pushing and pulling and stretching and man-handling that the doctor did to my leg, but whatever it was, my knee painfully resisted any kind of movement. Ouch. Fortunately it was much better by Sunday, so I didn't have to hobble around church.

I had an appointment Tuesday to go over the MRI results with the orthopaedist, and I was a little nervous. My biggest fear was that the MRI would be inconclusive. Well, the doctor examined the MRI, bent my knee around in unnatural positions again, and then deciphered the MRI for me. Basically he said I have two issues. First, there was an obvious meniscus tear (I could even spot it on the MRI before he pointed it out). And second, my ACL is messed up again, but he's not sure how badly. In my surgery back in the 80s, my ACL was reconstructed by taking a graft from my kneecap and using two screws to hold it in place, thus creating a new ACL. Over the years, my ACL has split in two (lengthwise), which of course is not normal. Additionally, he thinks the graft has stretched through the years, and also that my screws may be loose (heehee), but the metal in the screws blurred the MRI image in those areas (metal screws + Magnetic Resonance Imaging = not good), so he can't be certain.

So the plan is for me to do physical therapy three times a week for three weeks in hopes that building up the muscles around the knee will help stabilize it. If this works and my knee stops giving out, then all is well (at least for a while). If after PT it still is unstable, that's when we'll discuss surgery. I vote for putting that off as long as possible...

SuperSharla saves the day ... er, the dog

2010-09-09T10:31:00.004-05:00

The drama never ends around here.

Two weeks ago the neighborhood kids discovered a stray dog on our street. Livian a.k.a "the dog whisperer" took to this dog immediately, naming her Bella. After some examination, we concluded that the dog probably got dumped, so a few of the moms and kids on our street fed her, played with her, and kept her safe until the next day. One of my neighbors then took her to the animal shelter, with their promise that they weren't a kill shelter and would try to adopt her out. Livian was crushed that the dog was at the shelter and cried off and on all week, but we assured her and the other kids on the street that we wouldn't let anything happen to the dog (big mistake!).

Fast-forward to last Friday. It had been a week since Amanda had taken the dog to the shelter, so she called to see if it had been adopted yet. Nope, still there. In fact, they had deemed her unadoptable because they were afraid she was a fear biter (she was VERY timid), and they were planning on putting her down that afternoon. Amanda was about to go out of town for the holiday weekend, so ... SuperSharla to the rescue! I got sucked into bailing her out of the shelter and caring for her until Amanda got back in town. Now, most people know I'm not a dog person, so this was quite a challenge! Bella stayed in our backyard for three days, and Livian was out there every available second of every day playing with her. Bella was really sweet, despite being a smelly dog. :)

Amanda got back from her trip, and Bella went over there to live. However, Tuesday at mealtime Bella freaked out when Amanda's new puppy tried to eat her food (food aggression -- I guess it's pretty common?), so they decided they couldn't keep her after all. So Bella ended up back in my care, and I had to find her a new home ASAP! I posted an ad on craigslist, Amanda made some calls, and between the two of us, we found a guy to come take the dog that day. I was hoping the dog would be gone before Livian got home from school, as she was having some serious attachment issues, but the guy couldn't come until later that evening. Fortunately, we had gymnastics, so we weren't here when he came and got her. That would have just added to the trauma, and we had plenty of that as it was.

Sweet Livian, she has such a soft heart for animals!

Trash & Knees (and a trashed knee)

2010-09-03T08:28:00.007-05:00

With all three kids out of the house by 7:30 a.m., what's a mommy to do? Exercise! I've been looking forward to starting a jogging routine again, like I had pre-kids. I tried the gym for a couple years so I could make use of its childcare, but I was just too self-conscious to really enjoy working out with all those people around me. I love my elliptical, of course, but what I really love is the freedom to cruise the neighborhood alone. Kind of a reflective, peaceful, rejuvenating time for me.

So I've been going on daily walks/jogs, and as much as I have enjoyed this, my right knee is seriously objecting. For the last year, it has been giving out about once a week, but I was hoping that building the muscle up around it would help it not give out so much. Uh, wrong! It seems my plan isn't working, as you can see from the picture. Every morning I take my romp around the neighborhood, and then I spend the rest of the day hobbling around and watching my knee swell, hoping with each step that it won't give out. Ouch!!! I'm researching orthopedic specialists now, and I'm hoping to get an MRI to figure out just how bad things are in there. (insert sympathy here)

In related news... last week on my morning jaunt on trash day, I came across this beautiful, but well loved, cat scratching tree out by someone's curb. These things cost anywhere from $100 on up (and there's no way we cheapskates would ever pay that, of course). I ran home, came back with the car, and loaded it up. Tuell spent the weekend fixing it up using rope and extra carpet we had around the house, and now we have an awesome cat tree, and some happy kitties too!

First Day of School 2010!

2010-08-26T08:28:00.004-05:00

Look at my big girls! I still can't believe all three are in school now!

They have had a great first week. Livian's best friend Sophie is in her class, and she LOVES her teacher (she is a writer, and has traveled all over the world). Her teacher is also pretty strict, from what I've heard through other moms. Livian actually likes that, because she gets so frustrated with other kids who don't listen/obey the teacher.

Avalie's best friend ended up in a different class, but they are happy just playing together at recess. She has the same teacher Livian had in second grade, which is a great thing because she's an awesome teacher, but Avalie is having to put up with being called by her sister's name constantly. Maybe I should embroidery a t-shirt or headband with Avalie's name prominently displayed on it?!

And then there's Melaina. Just as I expected, she has had absolutely no problems starting school. In fact, she marches around the place like she owns it! Unfortunately, she has brought this know-it-all attitude home with her every day, and it's driving me crazy! This first week the kindergarteners get out at 11:45 to help them adjust to school, so I've had three extra hours with her at home trying to boss me around before her sisters get home. Needless to say, we've had some battles this week. Hopefully once she adjusts to school, her attitude will improve (and I can stop pulling my hair out!).

The Great Tennessee Sweat Fest, part 4

2010-08-24T09:26:00.005-05:00

Thursday was another take-it-easy day. One of Livian's necessities for this trip was horseback riding, so she, Tuell and Avalie headed out to a nearby ranch for an hour-long ride. Tuell was not pleased to find out once they arrived that you weren't allowed to take any pictures! I guess they wanted to sell you theirs (for a ridiculous amount). Tuell managed to take a couple before getting yelled at... the rebel.

After their ride, they discovered a gemstone flume on the property. The girls each got a bag of rough and had a blast searching for their gems.

While they were galloping about the countryside, Kristen invited me to go shopping. Rho and Corban dropped us off at a fun purses/jewelry/accessories store, and we spent an hour or so perusing the girlie stuff while R & C went to a knife show. We found lots of things we "had" to have, of course!

We were to meet Kristen's family for an early dinner at a restaurant they like called Bullfish in Pigeon Forge. We had something like 20 people so it was a bit crazy getting everyone seated, but once we were settled, we had a delicious, relaxing meal. After dinner the girls swam a bit in the resort's outdoor pool while Corban and his other cousins played pool in the rec center, and the rest of us watched and chatted.

Friday was our last day there (our plane departed at 4 p.m.), so we all went on a short hike to Cataract Falls. The kids (or should I say Tuell?!) discovered salamanders living in the mud around the water, so the kids enjoyed catching those and putting them in a butter dish (thanks for the dish, Grandma!). Once back at the resort, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the airport to turn in our rental car and wait for our flight. Melaina busied herself with some paint-with-water books while we waited, and Livian and Avalie entertained one of the flight attendance waiting next to us with their happy giggling. As we deboarded in DFW, the flight attendant said a sweet goodbye to "those giggly sisters!"

The Great Tennessee Sweat Fest, part 3

2010-08-22T21:57:00.006-05:00

Wednesday morning we took it slow and easy. Tuell took the kids swimming, then we had our big meal for the day at lunchtime, where Paula and Boyd joined us once again.

That afternoon we loaded everyone up in two cars and drove on some seriously curvy roads for an hour or so to a place called Cades Cove, a beautiful driving/biking loop in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park that people flock to in hopes of seeing some wild animals. Kristen's dad had loaned us his pickup truck, so the kids (along with me, Tuell and Kristen) piled in the back of the truck for the scenic drive. We first spotted a rabbit (feel the excitement!), followed by some deer, and finally several bear, including a mama and her two cubs climbing high in a tree.

Cades Cove was once a small pioneer community in the 1800s, and many of the structures have been preserved. We stopped at one of the churches and walked around the building, connecting cemetary and surrounding woods for a while.

Then we stopped at the rest area halfway through for a picnic dinner and potty break. On the drive out, we saw another bear, this one really close to the road, before heading back to the resort. Cades Cove was gorgeous, and it was cool seeing some animals, but the best part in my opinion was watching the cousins be silly and have fun with each other in the back of the truck!

The Great Tennessee Sweat Fest, part 2

2010-08-22T20:36:00.006-05:00

Tuesday morning we headed back to Dollywood for our "second day free" outing. Bo, Becky and I took the five girls over to the kiddie area while the rest of the clan went to ride some of the big-kid rides. The kiddie area was virtually empty, so the girls pretty much got to ride whatever they wanted, as many times as they wanted, without waiting in line! Bo and I got a bit green riding the swings and the teacups (kids under a certain height required an adult to ride with them), but the scrambler and the elephant rides were much more tolerable. The kids had an absolute blast!

We decided to meet back up with the rest of the family at a bird show starting around 11:00 (which wasn't soon enough for me and our girls, because Tuell had taken our backpack with our water bottles in it, and it was HOT). Livian loved the bird show, of course, and I regretfully let her borrow our camera to take a few pictures afterward... she came back with about 50 different photos of the same bird, in various poses. You'd think I'd learn...

After the bird show, our little clan of five went off on our own to do some water activities and rides before heading back to the resort. We let the girls cool off in a splash area, and of course they got soaked. Then we encouraged them to give a downhill water ride a try, even though they weren't too sure about it. We got to the front of the line and discovered that while five people could fit in each boat, the combined weight of said five had to be at least 450 pounds to be able to go together. Tuell and I did some calculating as we waited in line, and we knew it was going to be close. Sure enough, we were a whopping six pounds above the limit, so we all got to go together! Phew!

We went on one more water ride, then headed back to rest before fixing dinner (it was our night to prepare the meal).