My Soccer Boy!

Oh my goodness. My boy is a soccer player, and a cute one at that. We just got the soccer pictures back in the mail (because what self-respecting mother won't buy all the crap the organizations put out there to buy, right?) and here's the adorableness that presented itself to me when I pulled it out of the envelope:

Note that the shirt has been blurred and the team name has been removed - this is my pathetic attempt at security. :) Herb would be so proud of me!

I also have a team photo but I haven't scanned that one in yet because I framed it and put it up on the wall right away. Besides, that would require more "security" enhancements with Photoshop, and I'm lazy.

Will write more another time. :)

Some funnies from Owen...

While singing today.... "Bow Chicken Bow-wow"

He likes to make up silly rhymes. In addition to being normal as far as language and literacy go, it also started with some school game they play that begins, "Have you ever seen a whale with a polka-dot tail?" The other day in the car, Owen asks us..... "Have you ever seen an octopus showing his cocktopus?"

New Year, New Post

If you would have told me that this would be a quarterly blog, I would have argued mildly while knowing you were right. I'm the Jackie-of-all-trades, master of none. I like doing a little bit of a variety of things and love to bounce around among hobbies...obviously including this blog. Unfortunately for you, it means long waits between updates. Sorry 'bout that, and hope this one is interesting enough for you. :)

So first, Happy New Year of course. 2008. I'm planning to make it a lovely year. I love the idea and feel of a fresh start - the beginning of each year is a very emotional time for me as I, like many others, assess my life and dream of improvements thereto. Since last post and especially in the last month, I've been exercising regularly, growing my hair out some, drinking too much Mountain Dew, procrastinating some work that needs to be done and completing other work that doesn't, reading books on homebuilding & sketching floorplans late into the night, shopping, doing my best to keep the house cleaned and uncluttered, and enjoying the presidential race. I'm NOT enjoying the stupid fricking writers' strike that has taken away my vegetative time and has left me hanging on fictional unresolved issues on a few favorite shows. Share the pie, studios. Settle down on the demands, writers. Get back to work, everyone. Ugh.

Our holidays were very peaceful and fun. The kids were thrilled with all of the time we were able to spend together with Herb working from home for a month between semesters and with all of the excitement that the season brings. Owen's very disturbed by the fact that it's winter but the snow show is zip. He's all like, WTF? All of the stories have snow when it's winter. I know my seasons, people, and if I can run around in my underwear in the backyard, it is not winter. O also has returned to school and while he was devastated that his school would be closed for a couple of weeks, he seems almost as unenthused to have returned. I'm hoping it's just because he's working hard and needs more rest to transition back rather than an overall disappointment with what's happening in class.

I got a new monitor - a bargain widescreen one - and I love it. Just had to declare that as I sit here enjoying it.

My Kristen girl definitely seems like she's almost two - though it doesn't seem possible that almost two years have passed since I had her. She counted to five the other day. She says A, B, C, D, E, F, G and then throws four to six more miscellaneous letters out there to finish up the alphabet. She sings Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star nearly on key. She has great manners, what with the pleases and thank yous and all. She has a ridiculous sweet tooth and she's not so much into the veggies. Though she generally will try (and like) just about anything you put in front of her, she requests macaroni and cheese every day. She's super-affectionate, especially toward daddy. She'd be all over brother if he'd let her - she loooooves her bwuh-buh. She's not particularly ticklish and it takes a lot to get a laugh out of her, much like her daddy. The other day, when clarifying a point to Owen, she used the word, "actually". And when she pulled out a can of juice concentrate from the cabinet and showed it to me the other day, she referred to it as "Mountain Juice" (I told you I was drinking too much Mountain Dew).

That's about it for tonight. See you in three months or less.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Really explore the studio space this time. I mean, really... explore the space.

Trick or Treat: Dog & Fish Style

Happy Halloween, everyone! Here are some pictures of Mama's Family Halloween 2007.


My little ones were exhausted before we went trick-or-treating, so the event was blessedly brief and ended without drama. When we got home, we sat next door and shoveled candy by the fistful into our neighbors' kids' bags until it was time to get ready for bed (i.e., for about 20 minutes).

In case you can't tell from the pictures, Kristen was a fish and Owen was a beagle. I forgot my camera and thankfully my friend Tanya remembered hers and did a great job of documenting the occasion. Kristen was absolutely livid that she couldn't wear her fish while in her car seat; once she was dressed and in the stroller, she had a peaceful evening. Owen, on the other hand, wore his costume long enough to get his take of candy and then couldn't get the dog off fast enough. I wore brown pants and a brown T-shirt and told Owen I was a candy bar. Herb wore his Prince of Darkness top from a couple of years ago with some black pants.

In other news, that new job I mentioned a few posts ago isn't going to work out. At first I was disappointed, but with the way things have gone...I'm fine with it. The details are gory and won't be aired here, but those who read this probably have the details anyway. Of course it means that "cushion" I spoke of is no more, but we've done without it before and we'll be good without it again. :)

Tanya and I went to dinner on Sunday night at the Chinese buffet and we had a kickin' time. We had a grand total of ZERO children with us for 1.5 hours! Tanya had three Cokes and her fill of eggrolls and I had about a dozen potstickers and another dozen stuffed mushrooms and we both finished it all off with some ice cream and a stroll down to the shoe store. That's my idea of a good time, baby. Wooooo! The amazing thing was that not only did I have a lot of fun during the whole thing, but it made my day because I was looking forward to it so much.

Owen's 4th birthday is just 3 weeks away and his party is shortly thereafter. We're doing a pottery painting party for him so I hope it turns out to be a good time. All of those four-year-olds and a bunch of breakables gives me pause...it'll make for good memories regardless of what the pottery ends up looking like!

Oh, Allergies...

So now we know...Kristen's allergic to the -cillin family of antibiotics. Want to know what that looks like? Well, check out her poor little pictures. This reaction explains why she wouldn't sleep last night, eh?

Sick Kids

Oh, it has been one crazy week. Friday was filled with back-to-back teacher visits almost all day. Kristen and I went to Dillard's afterward while we waited for Owen's school to let out. Then we picked him up and came home. Tuesday morning I had more teacher visits and then I got a call - Owen was running a very high fever and I needed to pick him up right away. I was there by 12:30 and the first available appointment I could get with a doctor for him was at 5:30 at Children's Hospital. I took my lethargic pie home and pumped him full of medicine. He slept most of the afternoon. Blood draws and chest x-rays revealed nothing but a bacterial infection of something. They gave him a rocephin injection and he was allergic to it so he then was given benadryl. Went home, passed out, back to the doc the next morning because by the time we got home, Kristen had a fever. She was quickly diagnosed with a sinus infection and was put on amoxicillin. Then back to the doc in the afternoon for Owen - and after a head x-ray it was diagnosed as a sinus infection with zero drainage. He's also on amoxicillin. Both are doing better today. Hopefully even better tomorrow.

I'm really, really, really, really, really tired.

Jobs & Money

I have all of this work now that I haven't had in a long time (I'm talking years here). I'm so excited about it all but am having an awkward time making the mental shift. First, there's the busyness factor. Busyness begets busyness for me, which is a good thing. I realize how efficient I need to be with my time because less of it is for free play. The second thing is the money. It's having a positive impact on our budget and we've got cushion we haven't had in a while. We have all of these things we've wanted or needed to do, and now they're going to get done. Tires for my car - done. Real estate taxes - paid. Checking on a new garage door since ours is inoperative and ancient. It's exciting. And I love the work I'm doing. What could be better?

Busy Times

School's back in session for all of us except Kristen & the dogs and whoa are we all busy.

Owen's doing very well in school and enjoying it so much that he's now going whole days instead of half days. I wasn't ready for that but it's actually working out very well. The only thing I'm having trouble with is the disconnect between his school life and my knowledge of his school life. It is so strange not to know the names of the other children in his class and not to know when he visits the bathroom or eats something. I miss knowing the minutiae.

A new job came my way and I took it. I'm still keeping my ASU job also, but now I'm working with the Southern Early Childhood Association on their conference and other projects as they arise. My new boss is a very cool woman and I think we'll work well together. As my current boss Joanna put it, "You're both very direct." :D Tru dat!

This week is the Rhea Lana consignment sale and next week is the Duck Duck Goose sale so I've been getting ready for those. I've got 220 or so items going into RL, but there's a 75 item limit on DDG so I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to put in DDG yet. Sort of depends on what sells at RL.

Last weekend we drove down to Louisiana for the long Labor Day weekend and for my nephew Christian's fifth birthday party. Lots of family. Just two weeks before that, my stepmother-in-law's son Vincent passed away in an unusual gun accident, so we did not get to see her as she still was (and is) deeply grieving. We did get to see Grampa Poncho, Gramma Bit, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Harvey, and oodles of cousins. We only were there for 40 hours, so obviously we didn't accomplish much more than the party, meals, and rest.

My mom was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago with diverticulitis. She's having a difficult time adjusting to the diet and has had a couple of small (but not hospital-worthy) recurrences courtesy of a big plate of pasta and a philly cheesesteak sandwich. We had a good laugh today about what's going to happen if she doesn't get it under control...

Herb sent a paper in for a conference in Canada so maybe we'll be doing a little trip this winter.

That's about it for us. Hope all is well with y'all!

Pre-K

My boy's a P3 now!

Language development in my 3 2/3-year-old...

Under our kitchen island is where we store all of our tupperware. Plastic containers. Whatever the proper term is. Anyway, it's one of the few cabinets that aren't kid-proofed and as a result, scattering the tupperware is something both Owen and Kristen enjoy while I'm cooking, folding laundry, paying bills, or reading the newspaper while sitting on an island stool so no one under five feet tall can climb on me. Yesterday was one of those days where I was frying up some potstickers and every last stick of tupperware was out of the cabinet and on the kitchen floor.

Well, the night got away from us so this morning it was time for Owen to clean up his mess. He sat down and started pitching things back into the cabinet and moaned, "This isn't exhilirating."

Cleaning the kitchen? Exhilirating? I suppose not.