4.27.2006

Snake Girl

Today was “Take your pet to school day” for Sam. She really wanted to take Murphy, but I wasn’t sure he could be trusted around all those eager children. I opted for the calmer of our two pets and took the snake. I kept the boys home from school for an hour this morning to be the official snake handlers (I am not quite ready to hold him myself). None of the kids seemed phased by a snake in their classroom; some of the teachers reacted quite differently. When Helmut put the snake around Sam’s neck, she looked like she had just won the lottery. She looked cool and she knew it.

4.26.2006

My Baby is Growing Up


Helmut came home with a packet from Hamilton Middle School today. I cannot believe I have a kid in Middle School! He is growing up way too fast. He is full of excitement for the coming year and all the changes in store for him. He takes each step towards independence with bright-eyed enthusiasm. He gets to choose one elective for next year. He is hoping to get placed in the Art class that runs the entire year. Otherwise, he will have to take a three part class of Art, Speech and Choir that each run for 12 weeks. I hope the whole Middle School experience is still just as exciting to him at this time next year!

Barbie


Sam was watching TV today while I was doing the dishes and a commercial came on for the new DVD "The Barbie Diaries." Our conversation went something like this...
Sam: I want that movie, Mom
Mom: We'll see (a phrase I hated hearing from my Mom as a kid because it almost always meant no, but now that I am a Mom I find it quite useful, thanks Mom!)
Sam: I comes with a real diary
Mom: Really? What would you write in your diary?
Sam: My boyfriends
Mom: Who are your boyfriends?
Sam: I don't know yet.
Mom: {speechless}
Sam: (nervous laugh) don't tell anyone I said that...

Shhh...Don't tell her I told. I am not sure about this whole Barbie thing. I know I played with them as a child and turned out fine (shame on you if you are thinking otherwise), but these days it seems like Barbie promotes growing up too fast!

4.24.2006

What's a Mom to do?

Josh had a late baseball game tonight. We were playing a team ranked high than ours, so I was nervous about the game. Our team played well and we were able to stay ahead during the entire game. Josh played great. He did a great job at catcher and had a great night on offense as well. He hit a single, walked once to first and hit an in park home run (2 run RBI) to end the game. He was ecstatic!

Sam on the other hand is hard to handle at these games. Little Helmut was smart and volunteered to be the official batboy. I am pretty sure that was to insure he was not put in charge of Sam. She walked up and down the bleachers until I (and the other parents) couldn’t take it any longer. I did what any mother would have done…I gave her a bottle of water and told her to go make mud in the dirt. This kept her busy for at least 20 minutes until she ran out of water. This is where my judgment got a little questionable. I wanted so badly to be able to watch the game, so I spied an old cup of melted snow cone and handed her that. As I looked back at her, I realized she was trying to wash the mud off her hands and feet with the melted purple snow cone. She was covered. I may not win any mother of the year award, but at least I got to actually watch Josh hit the home run.

NYC Day Three

Our final day in NYC was actually spent in Greenwich, Connecticut. We woke up early to hunt for all the eggs the Easter bunny left and give the kids their Easter baskets. Church started at 9 AM in Stamford, so we didn’t have much time to enjoy the Easter spoils. It is always so interesting to go to a different ward. I enjoy the people watching experience and the challenge to try and figure people out with just a three-hour time limit. The service was actually quite interesting and kept me engaged (which is saying a lot since I had only had about thirteen total hours of sleep since Wednesday).

After church we hurried home to get Easter dinner on the table. We had a delicious leg of lamb (that had been marinated in a pomegranate sauce), grilled potatoes, salad and yummy rolls from Whole Foods (I wish I had one of these great stores closer by my house!).

After dinner came the mad rush to finish up Easter and get packed before we left for the airport. The dads hid 396 candy filled plastic eggs for the kids to hunt and two money filled eggs. The kids were in hog heaven with all those eggs and Josh was ecstatic when he found the money egg (Helmut was not). It was a great Easter!

4.22.2006

Pinewood Derby

I loathe the Pinewood Derby. Every year that my sons have been Cub Scouts, we have had to live through the saga of the Pinewood Derby. I am not sure what the Dad who started the Pinewood Derby was thinking. The kids cannot do this project; it’s the parents who end up doing ALL the work. Boys between the ages of 8 and 11 can’t use power tools! Josh didn’t even touch his car last night until he handed it over to the man at the weighing station.

Helmut has worked on Josh’s car on and off for a few weeks now. He even came home from work at 2:30 on Thursday to get it ready to sand and paint. He had to take his Professional Engineer Test in downtown Houston on Friday, so it was up to me to paint it. He thought he would be home in time to do all the final assembly and get it properly weighted. Well…his test ran over two hours, so it was up to me to put the wheels and weight on. When he called at 6:00 PM to tell me he was just leaving the test (weigh in started at 6:30), I went into full panic mode. I had no idea how to put the wheels on a pinewood derby car! It was like asking a ninth grade biology student to remove a gallbladder.

Josh and I went out to the garage and read the directions and did our best with a rubber mallet, sharpie marker and Popsicle stick (don’t ask…I did what I had to do and used what I had to use). The real tough part came when we realized the car was three quarters of an ounce under weight, and the little metal weight rods we had weighed an ounce each. The directions said, “use a hacksaw to remove the unwanted portion of the weight.” Do you know how hard it is to hacksaw a three-inch piece of metal (without cutting off your finger)? I am ashamed to say there were a few unsavory words flying around the garage while we worked out the whole clamp it down, hacksaw it and attach it to the car process.

In the end, Josh seemed pretty pleased with how “his” car turned out, and we took fourth place. Only one more year to go we will be done with the Pinewood Derby forever!!!

4.21.2006

Studio Friday


So...this is my first submission to Studio Friday. I am excited about the prospect of a weekly challenge to look at my studio (and life) in a different way. I am not a particularly "Sparkle/Shine or Shimmer" kind of girl, so this challenge was difficult. When I made this tin I felt like the "d" needed a little something extra, so I gave my unopened bottle of Diamond Dust a whirl.

4.20.2006

Go Adam!

I am taking a break from our New York trip tonight to talk about the Astros (they are off tonight and I have to get my fix somehow). They are playing pretty well lately and actually hitting the ball. Adam Everett (who some have said in the past should be traded away) has been doing exceptionally well...fielding and BATTING! I am not naive, I am sure the Astros will hit a few bumps in the season somewhere or another, but my hopes are high. Fourteen times in Major League history, the losing team of the World Series has come back the next year to win it. Go Astros, make is fifteen!

NYC Day Two

We started off day two in a casual manner. The kids watched TV while the adults chatted and made breakfast. I ran into town with Shauna, Audrey and Sam to get some new shoes. For some reason I was thinking I really wanted to pack light for this trip. I have a tendency to over pack and I was trying to break that cycle. In the spirit of light packing, I only brought one pair of shoes, dress boots to be more exact. By the end of day one, I thought my feet were literally going to kill me. I found a pair of comfortable looking loafers at J. Crew (they were indeed not comfortable and rubbed two large blisters on the back of my heels…ugh).

All the kids begged us to let them stay home and play instead of sight seeing. I insisted they come with us to see the Statue of Liberty (when the boys first found out we were going to New York, the Statue of Liberty was the only thing they mentioned wanting to see). After a hair-raising ride into the city (which included more than one “I hate you” from Sam) we arrived at the dock for the SOL boats. The line was two hours long (and I was wishing I had listened to Eric and let the kids stay home). There are very few things in life I will stand in line for two hours to see, and the Statue of Liberty is not one of them. We decided to take the Staten Island Ferry instead. It runs right past the SOL and gives a great view. The kids really seemed to enjoy the ferry ride. I was thrilled with it and the statue was beautiful. I couldn’t help but think about what so many immigrants must have been feeling as they saw her for the first time. So much excitement knowing their long journey had almost ended and their new life was just beginning. It was very humbling and inspiring.

Next we walked (ouch) over to a dock nearby and had hotdogs and ice cream from the street vendors. Then we walked (ouch) to Ground Zero. It was interesting, but not a whole lot to see. It was pretty nerve wracking trying to keep the kids from being totally disrespectful (climbing on the fence or what not).

The kids went home with the driver and the adults went to China Grill for dinner. It was a fun place and the food was plentiful and tasty. We ran (ouch) to our show when we realized we were going to be late. We were on the second row, smack in the middle behind the orchestra for “The Producers.” The show was amazing. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are no longer in the show, but the actors were unbelievable. The sets and costumes were incredible, and the play itself was crazy funny. I loved every minute of it! What a great night!

4.19.2006

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Sarah and I met my sophomore year in college when I started to date her brother (who I later married). We became fast friends. I have fond memories of dates together in the Red Ranger and cooking together at the Moon River. We discovered scrapbooking together at Provo High. We have raised our kids together (even if it was long distance at times). She makes me laugh and listens when I need her to. Thanks for being such a great friend and sister-in-law. Happy Birthday!

4.18.2006

NYC Day One

NYC Day one…
We got the chance to travel to New York City over the Easter Holiday to visit our good friends from Singapore.

We caught the early flight out of Houston to get a good jump on the day. We arrived in NYC just as it started to rain. We scrapped our plans to see the Statue of Liberty that day and walked the city instead.

We started out at the famous authentic New York deli, “Stage Deli.” It is a deli popular with locals and tourists located on 7th avenue. Their sandwiches are all named after famous people. I enjoyed the Howard Stern, a double decker, artery-clogging delight with brisquit and pastrami piled high on rye bread. It was delicious and was only made better by the yummy Russian dressing served on the side!

{One interesting observation about NYC was the number of candy stores. It seemed like there was at least one on every block. Here in Houston we like to joke about every block having a cleaners and a nail salon. I would much rather have a candy store on every block!}

We trudged our way through the rain (which varied between sprinkling and a steady drizzle all day) past Rockefeller Center, past Trump Plaza, past Central Park and on to the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts. The museum was pretty packed, but had tons of cool things to see. We were only able to see a small fraction of it before the kids declared anarchy and we had to scurry out before a national treasure was destroyed. I really enjoyed the Tibetan armor exhibit and loved the Degas room. It was surreal to see so many of the original paintings I have seen in print countless times in real life. Someday I will go back with no kids (in my next life, or at least my next stage in life).

After narrowly escaping disaster at the Met we hopped a taxi down to the Central Park Zoo. We took the kids to the Children’s Zoo and let them play around for a while. When we couldn’t take the rain any longer we headed for Greenwich. The kids were thrilled to finally be able to play with no more sight seeing for the day.

We left the kids with Big Sam and the adults went to dinner in downtown Greenwich at a small Italian restaurant called Terra. The food was perfect and it was nice to have time to sit down and engage in adult conversation.

Day Two tomorrow…

4.17.2006

Home Again

We are home from our trip to New York…I have lots of fun things to tell, but my Internet has been down since this afternoon and now that it is back up I am too tired to blog. I promise tomorrow! Until then, enjoy the new banner inspired by the trip.

4.10.2006

Sugar and Spice

It is a mellow Monday. Sam had a friend from Preschool over for a play date, so I took advantage of that time and got some housework done.

Socially, Sam has been in a really bad place lately. She is grumpy most of the time and fighting with her brothers way too often. She hasn’t been getting along well with her friends either. I was beginning to think this was her new personality. Today she did really well with her friend. I was relieved to know she still had some sweetness and compromise left in her. After her friend left, I asked her if she had a good time. She replied, “I thought I was going to fight will her, but I didn’t! I started to be mean for a minute, but then I just felt like being nice again.”

4.09.2006

Perfect Saturday


My day for all intents and purposes started at 4:30 AM when I heard Josh throwing up in the bathroom. I got him taken care of and back in bed. I, on the other hand, never could fall back asleep. I was too worried he would be sick all night and not be able to play in his baseball game at 10:00. What is wrong with me? I realize I am one of those crazy mothers you see on Oprah, but I am not sure what to do about it (and sadly, I am not sure I want to do anything about it).

I was so relieved when he woke up and said he felt fine. I was sure he felt fine when I watched him polish off four Shipley’s donuts and a kolache!

He had a great game today. The game started off well, but we started losing pretty badly around the third inning. In a way, the fact that we were so far behind was somewhat liberating to me. It seemed to me a foregone conclusion that we were going to lose once we were down by five points. Since I wasn’t stressing out in the stands, I used that time to get down by the fence and take some really good pictures (156 in all). Josh was playing third base (a new position for him) and chased down a boy stealing home on a wild pitch. He ran like an Olympic sprinter or the mother who receives a burst of adrenaline in order to lift a car off her small child. He dove out and tagged him/tackled him at the last second (or at least that is what everyone tells me, I was too nervous and looked away at the last second). Before I knew it, we had one last at bat and could tie up the game if we maxed out our runs. Sure enough we did just that and ended up with a tie. We were thrilled with a tie; the other team wasn’t so thrilled. Josh even received the game ball for his job well done.

We spent the rest of the day at the kid’s Spring Festival for school and watching the Astros lose a huge lead late in the game. In my opinion, just an Astros’ win shy of a perfect Saturday!

4.06.2006

Naked

You know how they saying death comes in threes? Well for me lately, naked has come in threes. Tuesday I was dropping Sam off at preschool when I spotted a 2 year old boy being dropped off for school...Naked. Okay, he wasn't completely naked, but there he stood in his spiderman underwear (on backwards) and his sandals (on the wrong feet) with his shirt and shorts in hand. His mom was going on and on to her friend about how he just wouldn't get dressed and she didn't know what else to do. (I know, hold him down and force some clothes on him). I am sure the teachers were just thrilled when she dropped him off to class.
Naked #2...I was awoken at 6:45 this morning by my husband saying he didn't have any clean underwear...Oops. Mom, before you freak out and think I never do laundry, let me defend myself. He was out of town all last week while laundry was being done on a regular basis, thus all his dirty clothes are in his suit case. I may be the Mom around here, but I am not sure my job description includes searching the whole house over (and quite possibly the back seat of his pickup truck) for his suit case just on the off chance there may be dirty clothes in it. Sorry Hun. You admit yourself you didn't marry me for my cleaning skills.
Naked #3...Like a good wife, I hopped out of bed this morning and quickly began doing laundry (like I said before, not my fault about the underwear, but my Mom passed down a mean case of guilt somewhere in my DNA). When I hopped out of the shower this morning, I realized all of my preferred underwear were in the laundry. I had no clothes on and all the window shutters were open, but I never see my neighbors. We are the kind of neighbors that peek out the window before going out to get the mail to avoid seeing anyone in the 30 seconds we are out there. I am on my way back from the laundry room passing through the dining room when I see our 70+ retired neighbor at my front door. I don't think he saw anything in the two seconds I stood there before running to the back of the house, but I'll never know.
What a day!

4.05.2006

My Boys


I got the rare chance to take some pictures of the boys this morning before they went to school. The light was perfect and my subjects were willing (for a few minutes anyway). So often I am looking for pictures of the boys and I just don’t have that many. They are gone at school all day when I have the time and energy to get my camera out. After school we are so busy with sports and homework that we run out of time or daylight. So I dragged myself out of bed and made sure to get these shots (even if I was on the front lawn in my pajamas). They are growing up so fast it kills me.

In other news, I actually made it to the “Y” today to run on the treadmill. Sadly, the weather here is already reaching the high 80’s, which in my opinion makes it too hot (and usually too humid) to run outside. The “Y” is an interesting place to people watch. There is such a huge cross section of humanity represented. My favorites are the senior citizens. They have their own little seating area right outside of the women’s locker and they always seem to be engaged in interesting conversation as I pass by. I hope once Helmut and I retire, we are one of those couples that get out of the house to go down to the local YMCA and “work out”!

4.04.2006

Go Astros!

Not much has been going on around here lately. I cleaned house yesterday and realized it would have been better if I had left it alone. Cleaning just uncovers more dirty spots...lesson learned.Today Sarah and I worked on a project and ate. It was good for my soul.We are thrilled around our house that another Astros season is under way. Win or lose, we just like to watch them play. Go Stros!

4.03.2006

TV Church


Our weekend around here was pretty quiet. Helmut had his last basketball game first thing Saturday morning. They played well and won the game. He is already anxiously awaiting the summer season. Josh had baseball practice in the afternoon. He started practicing for pitcher and is doing pretty well. I am not sure I will be able to handle the stress of it though. Helmut worked on the yard for the rest of the day.

Sunday was glorious TV church. It sure is nice to have that break twice a year and just roll out of bed long enough to find the remote. The kids really love TV church. We met the family for lunch at a nearby park. The weather was nice and the kids enjoyed the break from what could have otherwise been a long day.

4.02.2006

Elbow Room


We went to see Ice Age 2 last night with the Jones Family. It was so funny and all the kids loved it. I am definitely buying it as soon as it comes out on DVD.

The movie was sold out, so by the time we got there, seats were scarce. Sarah and I summoned up the courage to ask a teenage couple if they would move down so we could sit together. We assured them otherwise, Sam and Parker might disturb their movie watching experience. They were very nice and moved to the isle seats and then later left the theater and never came back. They must have hurried off to see Slither or Basic Instinct 2 (both of which were rated R and they couldn’t get in to see otherwise). Their seats were filled in minutes and then my annoying movie experience began…

There is an unwritten rule in the universe that if your chair shares an armrest with the chair next to you, you get HALF at the most. Evidently the girl next to me thinks that rule doesn’t apply to her. For most of the movie her arm was a good four inches into my chair. A few times my body got tired from contorting itself to avoid her elbow, so I moved over into her elbow thinking for sure she would move it…NNNNOOOO. She kept it in the same place like she didn’t even feel my rib cage pushing it out of the way. I was so annoyed. This is not the first time this has happened to me. Airplanes seem to be the worst. Space is already cramped and an armrest violator just makes it worse. This particular violator was the worst and most brazen I’ve ever come in contact with (which is saying a lot given the Asian’s lack of respect for personal space).