3...2...1...

And we're back!  Well, I am at least.  I don't think that anyone else ever really went anywhere.  For the past month I've been plagued by a series of unfortunate events.  Allow me to explain.  Wait, there is no time.  Allow me to sum up.

After 3 weeks of on and off excruciating mouth pain, my mouth pain became tooth pain and I needed a root canal.  Problem: the nerve in the tooth was necrotic.  During all this I developed a sinus infection and was put on two rounds of antibiotics.  After all that was done I developed a bladder infection and was put on more antibiotics.  After kicking that I got the flu.  I was pretty certain I was going to die.  Just ask Troy.  Now I'm about 82% of the way to better.  I'm left with a sore throat, cough, and congestion.  My voice has all but left me.

A day with Dad

So today was a great day to be me.  My loving husband, who has been taking care of me without ceasing for the past 3 days got to go back to work.  I'm sure he was elated.  Seriously.  I'm pretty demanding as a sickie.  Not to mention melodramatic.  Not to mention that there were 3 kids in the house to take care of too.  Phew!  Just thinking about it gives me the cold shakes.  But it was a great day because we finally got to get out the house together!  No, seriously.  Being trapped in your bed, in a room, in your house without leaving for 3 days is enough to drive a well person crazy.  This former sickie needed to get out!  And here's where I thank God for our local Chick-Fil-A.

The people who own this franchise must have children.  They are constantly having family nights and cool things going on.  And I mean really cool things.  The other week they had a "Build a Bot" night where they were doing robotics.  A few weeks before that they were doing a dinosaur presentation.  Tonight was the Houston Zoomobile!

The Houston Zoo has a Zoomobile that you can rent for an event.  They bring transportable animals and skulls and furs for the kids to touch and learn about.  It was a great time.  The kids loved to listen to all the animal facts and they even got to touch a baby alligator.  Annie loved it because it was a baby.  And since it was such a nice spring day, they had the event outside (I'm sure it was more because of the whole live animal thing).  So we didn't even have to go inside the Chick-Fil-A!  Instead we hopped in the car and drove to our standby diner.  The 59 Diner.

We enjoyed our burgers and fries and cold lemonade.  I enjoyed the idea of not making/cleaning up dinner.  Everyone was happy.  And now for an earlyish bedtime.  I've got to not overdo it.  More blogging to catch up on later.

Grandparents' Weekend

Spring Break is drawing to an end.  I'm not surprised that I feel like it wasn't enough time.  It never is.  I keep replaying it all in my head so that I can feel like it was enough, but it just wasn't.

Even though it wasn't enough time it was a tremendous amount of fun.  But how could it not be?  One week with your whole family together, having adventures and traveling to see the people that you love.  That was our Spring Break.

We took a trip to see my folks.  During our time there we scheduled a visit to Poppa Jeffery's shipyard.  The kids really liked it.  They got to see the water and throw rocks in it.  They got to see a tractor and a travel-lift and many different kinds of boats.  The sun was hot and the sky was just beautiful.  It was a great visit.

My mom is a teacher.  It's her last year before retirement.  Her Spring Break did not coincide with ours, but we still managed to squeeze in some Mamita Donna time.  We were treated to Chick-Fil-A and a small shopping trip to Target where we got our new flops for the upcoming spring/summer.  We also got to run some errands with her and just enjoy her company.  It's strange how you miss doing the seemingly mundane things together.

My kids really love when we go to see my parents.  And it makes total sense.  Toys that they haven't seen in a while, food that they haven't eaten in a while, ice cream cones, big screen TVs with more channels than you can shake a stick at, dogs, and grandparents.  That last one is surely the best part.

I'm not sure what it's like to be a grandparent.  I imagine that it's almost as good as when you first became a parent.  I mean, a baby is born and it is a joyous time.  You share in that joy, but in the end you go back to your house, away from your grandkids.  That part can be good, but I imagine that it's a little sad too.  It must be hard to go long amounts of time without seeing your grandkids and when you do see them, their changes must be so evident and that must make time seem like it's going so fast.  But new babies in the family offer hope.  It must be so wonderful to see your creation just keep on going.  I do look forward to the day when, God willing, I get to see my own grandkids and enjoy their company.  But I'm in no hurry.  The last thing I want to have happen is that I get to the point where my kids have kids and I feel like there just wasn't enough time.  But c'est la vie.  I'm just glad that I'm on a ride that I'm enjoying. And I'm thankful that I have parents to share it with.  We love you Nonna and Poppa!

Sense and Sensibility

I am amazed at how sensible my children are.  Well, how sensible they can be.  For instance, when asked if we should get Mommy a smoothie (I had a wisdom tooth extracted), Orry replied, "We can either go and get one and spend money or we can make one at home for free."  Beaming with pride, Troy turned the van around and headed straight home.  They ended up making a delicious strawberry and blueberry yogurt smoothie for me.  I won't say it was free, but it was already paid for.  Clearly the most sensible thing to do.

Another example.  Annie has been sleeping with the boys.  I wasn't too thrilled about the transition, but it's been working out.  However, on some nights the boys just won't settle down in a timely fashion.  Annie will remove herself from their bed and their room and ask to sleep in our bed.  A girl needs her beauty rest after all.  We don't really mind her sleeping in our bed.  She's pretty easy to move to her crib once she is asleep.

But the example that I'm most proud of has to be this last grocery shopping trip.  Before I explain I should tell you that this weekend was a stranger one.  I was gone for most of it and therefore the weekly shopping wasn't done.  My poor kids and husband had to fend for themselves.  Little pleasure was taken in eating the leftovers and odd canned things in the pantry.  So when I took them shopping I told them that we would buy anything that they wanted.  Anything.  They were so excited about this.  I was sort of regretting that those words came out of my mouth and also a bit bewildered that they did...

The first extravagance was taken in the produce section.  Honey crisp apples, green grapes, strawberries, and clementine oranges.  Not too bad.  If we were going to go buck wild, I was happy that it was happening in such a healthy place.  But alas, we weren't done.  We ended up buying string cheese, hot dogs, pretzel twists, Cheez-its (Junior Scrabble edition), Cocoa Puffs, and "baby" yogurt.  In the end I was pleasantly surprised.  We managed to walk by the Little Debbie section, the cookie section, the ice cream section, and the candy aisle without anyone asking for anything.  This grocery store even has a bulk jelly bean display.  Nothing.  Not a peep.  Needless to say, I was impressed.

My kids haven't been the only ones to impress me lately.  Lately, I've found that Troy has seen the light.  He's had some sense knocked into him.  He...

trimmed his mustache and beard!  I feel like I've got my handsome husband back from a trip in the wilderness.  I'm happy that I don't have to watch him drink coffee with a straw or constantly explain to him that he has crumbs in his beard.  I'm sure that the hot weather will help to keep up the trend and the cooler months will not help my plight, but I'm happy with it for now.  

Looking Forward

March is here.  This last Friday we went to the zoo.  Here are a few photos:

These last three photos have us looking forward to bird watching.  Isaac's favorite bird is the Blue Jay.  It seems that this year, the jays stuck around for "winter".  I recently saw my first Cardinal of the season.  We've also seen House Finches and European Starlings.  Red-Tailed Hawks are quite common around these parts, as are Louisiana Herons and Laughing Gulls.  If you are interested in doing some bird watching yourself, here are a couple great places for some tips about:

• attracting birds
• identifying birds

This windy picture reminds me that March is kite flying month!  Well, I don't know how official that is, but in our family, it's pretty official.  The kids are pretty excited about flying kites again.  This year I think we'll try to make our own.  

And this final picture reminds me that we needed to cut our kids' hair (just the boys) pretty bad.  And so, that is what we spent our Saturday doing.  Well, Troy spent part of his Saturday doing it.  And if you might like to spend part of one of your days cutting your kid's hair, you can get some instructions here.  I've actually been meaning to really read through that last link and try to do an outstanding job with my kids' haircuts.  But alas, Troy has had to pick up the slack on that one.  Maybe he'll get the hint and take a long look-see at it... Oh, what am I saying.  He did a great job.  Have a look for yourself:

Yes, we went to the zoo twice in three days.  We have a membership.  We are crazy.    

Sweetness

It's been a mild winter here in Texas.  And plenty of rain has fallen to help relieve some of the drought-like conditions.  So what do you get when you add rain and sunshine in the deep South.  Mosquitoes.  Yuck.

And this is what you get when you add one mosquito and Annie-cakes.

This picture was just too cute not to throw in here...

She got bitten right above her right eye.  She must taste real sweet to those pesky skeeters.  And I know what you're thinking.  You want a Baby Ruth.  And now I've found my segue.

Yesterday we solemnly celebrated Ash Wednesday.  Here's a little information on the holiday, if you will.  In the Old Testament, ashes were sprinkled on the head and over the whole body as a sign of mourning and penance.  Pope Urban II (c. 1035-1099) is credited with recommending that Catholics receive ashes on Ash Wednesday. During the Reformation, most Protestant Churches eliminated the use of ashes.  In recent years, however, many of these Churches have resumed the practice.*

And so, our little family received ashes yesterday.  Some of us for the first time.  During the service, we listened to "The Invitation to a Holy Lent".  You can read it here by clicking the Table of Contents and then clicking Ash Wednesday.  To sum it up, it's an invitation to observe a holy Lent through self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self denial.  You got it, we're giving up something for Lent.

And here's where the Baby Ruth fits right in.  I asked Orry what he might like to give up.  He had a really hard time coming up with something.  Partly because 40 days seems like a lifetime to a child.  Partly because the idea of sacrificing something is hard to wrap your head around at that age.  But never the less, we came to the consensus that we would give up sweets.  Cakes, cookies, and donuts.  But not ice cream.  Oh ho ho ho, no.  Not ice cream...

Annie is giving up painting her fingernails and toenails this Lenten season.  I told her that it's because she loves Jesus.  To which she replied, "Jesus!".  Troy is giving up lunch.  And I'm giving up cake, cookies, donuts, painting my fingernails and toenails, sleeping in past 6am, and movies.  Well, that last one is still up in the air.  Troy protested when I told him that idea because if I don't watch movies, he doesn't watch movies.  I know that one would be really hard for us, but isn't that the point?  Isaac hasn't chosen anything yet.  But he won't be eating any sweets (except ice cream) like the rest of us.

But this Lenten season we are going to try something new.  We are going to give up laziness.  We are going to finish all our projects that we start.  We are going to pick up after ourselves and not leave tasks for "later".  We are going to get through our chores in a timely fashion regardless of how much we don't want to do them.
And by we, I am mainly talking about myself, but I will do my best to see to it that everyone else participates.

Boy, after all this I think I will need a candy bar on top of a cookie on top of a cake, with a donut on the side. But I won't need the ice cream...

*Taken from The Little Black Book: Six Minute Meditations on the Sunday Gospels of Lent (Cycle B)

President's Day

Sorry about the lack of posts recently.  I've been dealing with some mysterious pain in the nerves of my mouth.  But on with the stories.

On Monday we celebrated President's Day.  Well, celebrated is an over-exaggeration.  We did, however, take advantage of the long weekend and made a trip over to Houma to celebrate the soon-to-be wedding of my little sister.

This weekend was Lizzie's bridal shower.  We had a Mad Hatter's tea party.  All the baking and cleaning, and cleaning and baking was fun and exciting as we geared up to host the party.  We ladies had a great time.  The kids had a good time too.  Since we no longer have cable at our house, they sure do like watching a little bit of TV, undisturbed and on a big screen television no less.  But some of the them mananged to get out of the house for a while.

Isaac watching his Daddy and Poppa work in the wood shop

But this President's Day was more special than any other so far.  For this year, at this time, we are learning about the Presidents of the United States of America.  If you love history, then you'll understand how exciting this sort of thing is.  We are working on memorizing the first 30 presidents.  So far we know the first 10 with no problem.  We might actually work on making a catchy tune to help us out with the other 20.  But in the meantime, we are learning some great facts about some of the lesser known presidents, like Franklin "Handsome Frank" Pierce and Martin "Little Magician" Van Buren.  A batch of cookies to the first person who correctly identifies the president whose nickname was "Uncle Jumbo".

So Happy Belated President's Day and Happy Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday!

*Congrats to MamaT, winner selected at random to receive something lovely from moi.

The Smell of Love

Ahh, Valentine's Day.  Can you smell it?  Smells like love.  Or maybe that smell is donuts...

This morning we left the house a little early in order to stop by the donut shop on the way to Isaac's school.  The kids loved the donut shop.  What kid wouldn't?  Chocolate milk, pink donuts with sprinkles, and donut holes.  That's what love is all about, right?

In keeping with our Valentine's Day traditions, we got the kids some books about love.  And here is where I will add that it's a little bit of a chore finding books that are about love and not about Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day.  But I managed.  Here's this year's picks:

For my Annie-cakes.

For Isaac.

For Orry.  And of course, it's a little bit about Valentine's Day, but it was just too cute to pass up!

Otherwise, it was quite the boring day.  Since I got my one and only wisdom tooth extracted (sounds so much better than yanked out) yesterday, I've been taking the prescribed pain medication today.  I've been a bit loopy and I've only wanted to sit on the couch and watch my kids play.  All day.  I did manage to stay awake and not just sleep all day.  That's what love is all about, right?  

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day, filled with love and laughter.  Maybe a hug and a kiss, too.   Now I'll leave you with a great quote from Helen Keller:

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."

(Psst!  Down here.  If you would like, leave your favorite quote about love in the comments.  I'll pick the one I like the most (or maybe one at random) and send that commenter something lovely.)