Groggyland

Pinewood Derby

2012-01-27T12:22:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Whoo, boy. It's easy to see that some kids (and parents) get waaaay into it. It's like Toddlers and Tiaras for boys to a certain extent. Bjorn and Andy did spend a lot of time working on it - nothing major, but it was a good project they did together. Some of these designs were amazing (sadly, no pictures) and some parents were grumbling to each other that there was some cheating going on.

Andy managed to come in 5th or 6th out of six in his pack (den? I can never remember). He didn't cry to throw a fit - we'd prepared him pretty well for it. Some kids were bitter and sad - to be expected when you work hard and it doesn't work out. Now the boys in my house want to build a track so they can practice between now and next year.

Bjorn has also agreed to take on being the leader of this age group. Big props! He's a great guy to do it and there is a cumulative sigh of relief from all the parents.

Oh, boy

2012-01-25T15:23:00.000-05:00

So here's an interesting problem that came up in our house the other day. We were at an event and ran into one of Andy's buddies and they decided to have a play date. Great! We love play dates.

The kids played outside in the creek while I worked in the yard next to them and then they played upstairs and downstairs for about an hour. I was around in the house folding laundry and putting things away. I'm downstairs when I hear from upstairs, "Mom! He's trying to kiss me!"

...

That's about what I thought, too. So I casually said to stop that, as if I was telling them to stop fighting, and gave the five minute warning. Convenient since I had just texted with the boy's mom and it was time to go home.

I am sure this isn't a gay thing (not that there's anything wrong with that), but kids being curious. But it's a good lesson on boundaries and leading into private parts and who can('t) see them. And damn, it's a lesson for me, too. Just when I thought it was safe to let kids play alone, they smack me in the face with a reminder why I have to keep watch. Gah. Don't these kids know Downton Abbey isn't going to watch itself?

Enjoy it!

2012-01-19T16:50:00.000-05:00

Several friends posted this essay this week on parenting that so rang true, I laughed out loud several times. Then I sent it to several friends. I love my kids. Loads, even. But there are certain situations and days that are just a challenge and that's always the day that some random stranger tells you to love every minute of it. Hee. Good stuff. It's always nice to know I'm not alone in thinking that while motherhood is truly one of the coolest adventures I've ever undertaken, some days are more fun than others.

Speaking of fun though, we've been having some good stuff lately.

This is the makings of the pinewood derby car Andy (and Bjorn) will race this weekend. We finally found use of a Dremel that's been in the garage since we bought it to renovate our kitchen in our last house, probably circa 2004. It's nice when being a pack-rat pays off.

This is the inside of the laser tag arena where we had Andy's party. I may have had more fun than he did.

Unwrapping presents. We had a small group - four kids plus Andy - so we could do that during a break in the action.

I can't recall what he got but it apparently smells really bad.

And we're off

2012-01-08T21:10:00.000-05:00

The training wheels came off yesterday. And it's pretty awesome.

He learned how to ride without training wheels at the end of the summer on his older, much smaller bike. But he couldn't get comfortable on this bigger bike. So we put the training wheels on and have been riding a lot lately. I have been asking for weeks (months) if he was ready, but he always said no. So Saturday we met friends who were also ready to take their training wheels off. Something about the peer pressure or the barometric pressure that day because he was ready.

Several people have likened this to potty training, "When they're ready, they're ready." Fortunately, this didn't involve any missteps that included bowel movements in sweaty boys underwear.

The great Christmas visit of 2011

2011-12-31T19:42:00.000-05:00

Bjorn's mom rallied the troops and brougth everyone to Texas for Christmas. It was awesome to have everyone under one roof. The kids, in particular, had a blast! It was so fun to have us all together although I think by the fifth day, everyone was itching to get back to their own places, and not just because the stomach flu made an appearance. Since then, we've been busy washing all the sheets and towels and hot water, folding up the air mattresses (and buying new ones since half the ones I borrowed broke this week) and finding left items in random

Here's Fafa giving out some presents.

Simone, Meg, Andy and Zane.

Bjorn, Tor and Erik and Zane. We went to my parents' for Christmas dinner. They were fantastic to host 15 people!

All the "BBs" on the stairs. Barnbarn is Swedish for grandchildren so these are all the BB generation.

Up in Dad's new office where he was showing off his guns.

Out of sequence but so damn adorable - this is Meg's hoilday pageant. Is was so damn cute!

Andy and Mrs. White at his school holiday party.

One of the dad's reading a story at the holiday party.

Erik and Fafa on Christmas Day.

Fafa and Jennifer making fantastic Swedish cookies. I ate all of them.

Jennifer in the "Forever Lazy." She really rocked it.

The obligatory bathtub picture. Zane is far too mature at 9 to have any part in this, but the other kids had a blast.

Zane and his glow in the dark mouthpiece.

Vermin in paradise

2011-12-13T10:44:00.000-05:00

Our house backs to a creek and a park. We love it. It is absolutely awesome to have this area. Downside? We have animals and not the fun kind. We have a possum that semi-regularly ends up in a trash can. And today, I saw an armadillo crawling across the pool cover and then into the bushes. Naturally one of the cats was sitting outside and watched the whole thing happen while yawning. These guys are obviously natural killers.

Best neighborhood ever

2011-12-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

Sure, we liked our old neighbor loads. Great people, friendly and all that jazz. But dang, we have it all here in Southlake. I love the mix of people from everywhere, kids of all ages and parents of all political and religious affiliations. I also love the enthusiasm for community which just makes me darn happy. At Halloween, we all exchanged "boo" treats for the kids which they loved. And just today, I got some homemade Christmas treats, an offer for Andy to house sit some dogs over Christmas and an invitation to a New Year's party.

Even Bjorn had found a few guys that he likes well enough to go out for beers with on occasion. For a guy who tries so hard to be a stoic, non-joiner, that's pretty impressive stuff.

Fancy pants camera

2011-12-09T14:59:00.001-05:00

I am still loving my fancy pants camera (and the fancy pants husband who gave it to me). I'm now coveting a new device that will let me post pictures even faster. In the meantime, here are some recent fancy pants pictures.

This girl can move! Here she is jamming at Andy's soccer game.

Classic father-son photograph. Classic picture of Mark refusing to smile.

The "boys", our boy kittens Perry and Mittens. I thought they were so cute asleep like that.

How good looking are these folks?

Our friends Jenny and Sean who were kind enough to ply me with wine and let me stay at their house last time I was traveling.

Andy getting a badge for his work at the last Cub Scout meeting. The whole Cub Scout business is really adorable. It also satisfies Andy's need for outdoorsy stuff that's not necessarily a competitive sport.

Mark really needed a haircut.

Dad in Arizona. We climbed "A" mountain in Phoenix right next to Arizona State University. It was a nice hike, and short, but staight up. I really dug Phoenix. Next time Mary does a triathalon, I want to bring the family and stay for a few days.

Sun Devil stadium from "A" Mountain.

Mary and Mom before race day.

Mary's car all decorated. Elizabeth and I did this after a few drinks and a $100 win at the casino. We are very cool and have fantastic talent.

Mary after the 1.5 MILE swim. That's right, 1 1/2 MILES in the water. And that's just the first leg of this Ironman triathalon. Seriously, it was amazing and inspiring. And naturally, I haven't exercised since.

Cool picture of the bridge and all the bikes.

The bridge at night. As you can see, I was really loving the fancy camera. I thought it turned out really nicely.

Mary after 1 1/2 miles in the water, 112 miles on the bike and 12 miles running. I was tired and I walked a mile. Seriously, it's amazing.

Bjorn putting the star on the Christmas tree.

Andy doing his spelling "sort."

What a good looking bunch of people

2011-11-28T23:07:00.001-05:00

Mom and Dad took us out to a fancy pre-Thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome and we got to see Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Turns out we clean up nice on occasion.
>

Legoland

2011-11-27T22:11:00.001-05:00

The kids and scoped out Legoland in anticipation of the whole family coming to visit for Christmas. It was the day before Thanksgiving at an outlet mall and it was PACKED. The kids enjoyed it a lot though. We had to actually wait to get in. They were only accepting preorder tickets. Poor Andy was in tears. We left to shop and came back and they still weren't letting people in. We had set to leave the mall when the clerk chased us down to say they were letting people in. Jubilee!

We didn't bring socks which was bad as the moon bounce thing required them. I thought it was a little lacking - not that much new and interesting for $50 for the three of us but they enjoyed it a lot even without doing the moon bounce or one ride. I suspect we will be back for Andy's birthday.

I went to Phoenix and all I got was $100

2011-11-27T22:03:00.001-05:00

This is certainly a bad idea

2011-11-27T22:01:00.001-05:00

But it's so fun!

Raingutter regata

2011-11-17T17:25:00.001-05:00

Andy is in cub scouts this year. What a cool program. They do all sorts of outdoorsy and civic stuff including a camp out at cowboys stadium. How awesome is that?

This week we had the raingutter regatta where they made little boats and raced. Andy was displeased when he lost but loved his boat. He wants to build a raingutter in our yard so ge can practice before next year.

Sony Alpha Nex

2011-11-04T13:21:00.000-04:00

As an early anniversary present, Bjorn got me a new camera, the Sony Alpha Nex-3. This is the new kind of camera that is small but has almost the same shutter speed and capabilities as a big DSLR but at a fraction of the cost and size. I've been taking pictures like crazy, partly because it's so easy to take 10 all at once and delete the bad ones. Here are some of the ones that made the cut.

Andy and Barrett playing Bakery Story.

These kids are fascinated with putting their bikes upside down and "fixing" them. It seems very familiar.

She's quite intense when scooting. Plus, shoes are for the Suri Cruise's of the world.

He does this funny thing when he's chilling, he spins in circles.

Andy's school obsession, a game called First in Math that we have a log in through the school. He's so proud as he's the second highest in the class consistently. He's definitely got Bjorn's math skillz.

Seriously? Look how pretty this kid is? The skin, lips and eyelashes just blow me away. And look what a great shot it is? Love this camera. And obviously I'm a gifted photographer.

See how gifted I am?

Andy really wanted to do the rock climbing wall at school during the fall festival. It was pretty cool. The whole rock climbing wall folds up onto a trailer to take away at the end. It was a little more advanced for him but I know we'll be back to do this kind of thing again.

She is totally the Ghostest with the Mostest.

I love the hair! And the dancing.

Mommy's little axe murdered, I mean, firefighter.

Bjorn and Fafa. We were scouting out Grapevine Mills for the Big Bennett Family Christmas this December. I totally want to take the kids to Legoland. It looks awesome.

Andy loved this spinning teacup.

Obi-Wan at Book Character Day at school. We don't call it Halloween here. Some of the Religious Right are very against pagan holidays like this.

Margaret and Fafa reading. Meg was so happy to have her grandmother to read her this book. She's also wearing her other Halloween shirt, "Out of Candy: Need Refill."

One very happy Batman (Batwoman?) with her loot.

Batman and Obi-Wan

2011-10-31T21:02:00.001-04:00

I have a interesting/terrifying emergency room story to report thanks to Margaret's plan to self-administer some ibuprofen for her cough, but it is too long to type on my iPhone (spoiler alert - she is fine, thank heavens).

Plus, it's Halloween and the candy is wearing off to remind me how tired I am. Until then, I leave you with Batman and Obi-wan Kenobi.

Admit it

2011-10-30T23:47:00.001-04:00

So admit it, my neighborhood is better than yours? I thought getting "booed" where you exchange secret Santa type Halloween treats like candy and stickers for kids was fun on the sly was fun, but this clearly takes the cake. A bottle of wine and skittles? I need to find this person and make sure she's my BFF. Stat.

Dance party

2011-10-27T14:31:00.000-04:00

Meg's dance class had a party yesterday for what was once Halloween but now is a non-religious/pagan dress up day. My kid can sure rock the freeze game. Plus at this rate, she will be at Black Swan level by 2078.

Bikes

2011-10-22T14:13:00.000-04:00

I really like to ride bikes and I love that the kids are getting to an age when we can do it together. Andy can ride without training wheels but he likes them for comfort still (fine by me). Meg likes her tricycle but she's not fast enough to keep up. I have been letting her ride in the bike trailer (see below), but she's too big to want to be towed in what is really a big stroller. And I'm not patient enough to listen to her insist she wants to ride and then have to carry her and her bike half way around the block while begging Andy to slow down.

I'm starting to do some research now on the next step - the trailer bike. These are little half-bikes that attach to the back of the bicycle. The kid gets to pedal and help, a little, but if they do nothing, at least you're towing them vs. towing the kid and the trike.

I was all set to do this until a friend on Facebook recommended I look into a different invention, a bike tow hitch. Basically, you can attach the kids' bike to this trailer hitch and tow him/her like the trailer bike with the advantage of letting them ride on their own until they can't any longer, then hooking them up. I see potential. This could also be useful since sometimes I'd like to meet Andy after school to ride home, but there's no way really to get both our bikes up to the school unless we rode up there together at 7:20 in the morning. And if you know me, you know that just ain't happening.

Anyone have experiences with these, positive, negative, indifferent?

Birds and the bees

2011-10-17T00:13:00.000-04:00

"Hey, Dad. My penis is all straight," Andy said this afternoon. "I think it's because I've been touching it."

I looked at Mark and Bjorn. "Is that what I think it is?" They both smirked and nodded.

Sigh, I am going to have to start talking to Andy (and Meg, eventually) more about awkward stuff, like where babies come from. I believe in doing it earlier vs. later to take out the surprise and mysticism of the whole thing, but I'm also somewhat terrified of this.

My very restless girl

2011-10-11T13:13:00.001-04:00

My daughter has a problem. She really doesn't like to sleep in her own bed. I have really tried everything from briberly to threats to sleeping with her to letting her sleep with us. We usually play a game where she comes out of bed and finds us, we walk her back to her room, she says for a while and then gets up again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Usually in this process, she eventually gives up and falls asleep somewhere in the house.

Here she is asleep in the den. It's almost always the same pose, face down with her hands tucked under her stomach.

This time she's actually asleep in her room, but still on the floor.

Asleep off the kitchen. Fortunately, she found a matt to sleep on.

This is just off our bedroom. That hardwood floor is, well, hard.

This is impressive because she's actually asleep in someone else's house. We were visiting a good friend from high school and she snuck out there, too.

Just outside her bedroom. She fell asleep on a toy. Her shirt also came off somewhere in the process.

Okay, this was a planned sleepover on the floor of the den. Aren't they cute?

Here she is asleep in my sister Mary's house in Austin.

Half-way into her own bathroom.

This is a personal favorite. We were spending the night in San Antonio to go to Sea World the next day. I think she debated sleeping in the laundry basket and then thought it would make a nice blanket.

Cub scouts

2011-10-09T22:37:00.000-04:00

Who doesn't love a man in uniform?

Andy has joined Cub Scouts (and I have had to try to remember over and over that it's cub scouts not boy scouts at this age). He's sort of an academic type kid and isn't as interested in team sports just yet so I think it's a good fit for his personality. Bjorn's been a trooper by jumping on the bandwagon despite it not being his first choice, including the whole outdoorsy/camping part that's kind of a requirement.

Yesterday was the first camp out. I got sleeping bags for the guys and borrowed a tent from a neighbor. As you can see in the picture below, it's big enough to sleep eight probably. You could practically in that thing. So the boys trekked off to points a few hours west. started setting up shop and the skies promptly opened up and it rained. And rained. And rained. This is rather hilarious since it hasn't rained longer than a thunderstorm here or there since April.

According to reports, Andy cried and cried (it is his first camp out) while Bjorn struggled to get the tent up during a monsoon. Then Bjorn put them both in the car, said goodbye to the others and went home. Considering it rained several inches last night, complete with thunder and lightening, I'd say it was a good call.

Work

2011-10-04T22:13:00.000-04:00

A room with a view.

The most exciting -- an event at the former Versace mansion.

You know, a place like Miami isn't normally my style. It's dressy in an odd way, caters to over (and under) dressed people and is all about show. Yet after spending four days there for work, I kind of dug it. Hanging out in South Beach in a fancy hotel with a great view certainly makes it better. I just appreciated the flair of it being different than just the regular nice enough work hotel with a nice enough restaurant in a big city.

So?

2011-09-18T14:25:00.000-04:00

Apologies, Internets. I've been busy. I'm taking a graduate level class that is so far way above my head. It's a math class. I know, what was I thinking? It's a required course in the master's in public health program so if I decide to pursue a master's, I've got to take it. Plus, it related to my job so I'm actually leaning a lot and putting into context some things I've picked up along the way. I just hate having to take tests and quizzes again. After my sophomore year in college, I successfully managed to only take classes with papers so 20 years later, it's a challenge. Sigh.

I've also gone back to work full-time for the first time since Andy was born. Granted, 40+ hours a week from home isn't quite the same as a full-time job in an office where I have to give up 10 hours a week to a commute and actually getting out of my shorts, but still. More responsibility, more stress.

Plus, when that new People magazine comes in with Toddlers and Tiaras on the cover, I have to read it immediately. It's not like it's going to read itself, folks.

I also have a new blog that's distracting me - http://surisburnbook.tumblr.com/. Check it out. You will cry with laughter.

Soccer

2011-09-14T22:45:00.000-04:00

I love soccer. I always have. I still play it now and love the friends I've made playing as a kid and adult.

But Andy? Not so much. This is his fourth season playing and his first season playing with real goalies. I keep hoping he will love it like I did, but right now he's just not that into it. He always whines and cries before most games and practices. He's happy after he's done, but leading up is torture for me. And let's not forget, it's all about me.

But see how cute and athletic he looks all in uniform?

See? He's running!

I have this framed now. I love how grown up he looks here. And that it looks like he's trying to stifle a laugh.

Look at those vampire teeth?

Nerd alert

2011-08-30T22:17:00.000-04:00

We have a new hobby her in Casa de Bennet - geocaching. Basically you use your computer, GPS or phone to navigate to these places to find little "caches" that have been left behind by other treasure hunters. They're pretty well hidden usually and in all sorts of various containers. It's been a fun activity to use the phone GPSs to navigate as a family to various spots and find treasures. Inside the boxes are at least a little list to sign your name that you were there (bring a pencil) and often, if it's a little bigger, there are little trinkets. Bjorn wants his calling card to be little Swedish flags. So far, my trinket has been whatever little plastic toy happens to be laying around the car. It's pretty cool, as Miley Cyrus would say.

Also new in the past two weeks are our kittens! I am embarrassed that I don't have pictures posted yet, but right now we're just dating. They sort of come out briefly, sniff us and dance around the living room. They're warming up quite a bit, but I haven't been able to get any good new pictures. On my list of toys for myself has been to get a fancy new camera, all the better to take fancy pictures with, but that was before the washing machine started spewing water on the floor of the laundry room. Lovely husband is at Sears as we speak trying to find a replacement. I mostly want energy efficiency. The one that came with the house for $50 was probably manufactured in 1989 so it has lasted a good long time. I imagine the newer ones are tons better.

First day part two

2011-08-23T14:37:00.001-04:00

Meg had her first day in her new preschool yesterday. She handled it quite well. I think having both first days on the same day helped. Maybe.

First day of first grade

2011-08-22T08:45:00.001-04:00

Seriously, when did this happen? He was just a toddler and she was a baby. Now they are so big and opinionated. Andy starts first grade today and rode the bus to school for the first time (I didn't cry but I thought about it). Meg starts a new preschool. Yay! And I'm not ready!

Most miserable cousin

2011-08-16T23:57:00.000-04:00

We got to see one of my cousins in Austin and her two kids. It was a nice visit, mostly because we picked a place called Waterloo with a super awesome playground attached to the restaurant (seriously Dallas. Get on that.) Andy however was unhappy to leave as evidenced below.

Adorbs

2011-08-16T23:54:00.001-04:00

Andy and I came home from my indoor soccer game tonight to find this. I do love these guys so much.

Austin

2011-08-15T23:56:00.000-04:00

The only picture we got of all of us. Look at my little vampire on the right.

A cool picture Mary took of all of us on the boat. She's right, it's a nice shot even if my rear end looks gianormous.

BATS! Seriously, how cool is that?

The kids and I to Austin this weekend to visit my sister. What fun. It's a good thing I didn't know about Austin sooner or I might have really made some sort of push to move there. Forever. What a fun town, friendly, quirky people. My lack of pot smoking probably makes me an anomaly there, but I think I could live with it. The kids were on great behavior, partly because we only went to restaurants with playgrounds. Dallas, are you listening to that? Restaurants with playgrounds. What a great idea! We loved being able to visit while the kids could eat, play, eat, play. Props to my college friend Julie who gave us the names of all the places in town with playscapes built in.

The highlight though was a boat cruise to see the bats come out of their colony under the town bridge. It was so cool and a little creepy to see two million bats flying out in rows at dusk to go hunting for their breakfast. Then we watched them fly off into the sunset looking more and more like a huge swarm of bees than bats. They must have flown out in organized rows for 20 minutes. It was pretty awesome. So awesome that I didn't have time to notice the woman breastfeeding her potty-trained, two year old child.

The great Texas heat wave of 2011 (or why I am melting)

2011-08-05T15:19:00.000-04:00

Dear Texas,
I love you. I really do. I love how the landscape changes throughout the state. I love how you have beaches, hills and mountains, rivers and lakes, sand hills and green pine forests all in the same state. I love how proud Texans are, how people are generally nice to women with children and try to help them exit a plane instead of cutting them off. I love that the cost of living is a lot less here. Sure, I have issues (well, tons and tons of issues) with the conservative, Christian agenda that seems to want to keep people (especially immigrants and women) poor, unhealthy, uneducated and pregnant. But in general, this is a nice place to be.

I do, however, have some complaints about this weather you're giving us. I know summer in Texas is hot. That's to be expected. We don't have a Boston winter where it's too cold and snowy to be able to do anything, but we do have a summer so hot you also really can't go out and do anything. I accept that. I am just not so keen on this 110 degree business though. If I wanted that, I'd move to Arizona where at least it's cool at night. And I know it's dry here generally, but I need a little more change of scenery beyond sunny and hot with a chance of clouds for three months. I need at least a good hail storm or severe thunderstorm to make up for the monotony.

It's so hot that it's too hot to swim even. It's hotter than swimming in a bathtub. It's like swimming in a hot tub. It's not even refreshing unless you do it at 10 p.m. and there's a cool breeze.

I will no doubt look back on this wistfully in January when there is an inch of ice on the ground, but I would willingly trade one for the other. Now, how do we go about changing some of this? Do you need a good rain dance? A cloud dance? Vodka? Brie? The new Chelsea Handler book? You name it.

Thanks, Texas. Love ya!

-Katherine

Boat safety week

2011-08-02T18:26:00.000-04:00

Today is boat safety week at swim class. I do love that they teach basic boat safety as part of swimming. Most likely a lot of accidents happen with kids in boats and I love that they are teaching them this, too.

Lost and found

2011-07-31T20:19:00.001-04:00

Andy has had two pairs of glasses since we got the prescription in April. He has also lost two pairs of glasses. The first pair cost about $150 at the Wal-Mart vision center. I got the super bendy frames and good lenses.

After that pair lasted two days, I went back and got the $9 frames and $20 lenses. Then we found the first pair and had two pairs for a couple of months.

Right before his checkup with the opthamologist, I realized both were missing so I went and found the cheapest pair available. The only frames I could convince him of in the $9 section were Harry Potter frames so I bought him the movie and we have been reading the book. We are now huge fans.

We went to lunch today with my folks at the the DCC. The main building closes for business today as they shut it down and demolish it to make way for the new fancy castle they are building. In honor of the big day, Andy lost his first tooth on the top on a piece of bacon. He has lost all four bottom teeth and now the top ones are on their way. My boy is a toothless first grader. When did that happen?

The very restless girl

2011-07-28T23:58:00.001-04:00

And she's at it again!

Snake handling

2011-07-25T23:38:00.001-04:00

This week, Andy is going to a safari camp at the local middle school. The science teacher has all these animals and puts on a camp for littler kids to more.

"So how was it? Did you like it?"
"It was so cool! I want a snake."

He hasn't stopped talking about the snake he is going to get since he got home. I am trying to be cool as I so clearly do not want a snake. A cat, a gerbil, mice or rats even. But not a snake. I suppose someday an we will end up with an aquarium of assorted cold blooded animals. It just never occurred to me that that sometime would be this soon.

They are moving on to mammals tomorrow. I could much more easily be swayed toward a ferret.

Meanwhile, Texas is driving me batty with this 2,000 days above 100 degrees bull. My AC bill was over $500 last month and that was before it actually got that hot. It hasn't rained since April, I think. We have this cute creek behind our house that is totally dried up right now. Plus, my feet are dry and cracked despite my attempts to put Vaseline on them before bed. And to add insult to injury, my hands are swollen which makes my wedding ring itch. I find myself checking the weather channel online hoping for a stray pop up thunderstorm.

Whirling dervishes

2011-07-21T17:58:00.001-04:00

Meg had dance camp this week. Beyond adorable although she is wearing my neice's bathing suit as I didn't have the right outfit. (As you see, I stole the idea from another mom). To my horror, it was cheer and pom pom class this week. She loved it though.

Pinkalicious

2011-07-19T21:26:00.000-04:00

Annie and Margaret made strawberry "pinkalicious" cupcakes today. Seriously how adorable?

Swim team

2011-07-15T14:17:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was the last day of swim team. Hard to believe we've been trekking up to the pool for two months now. His swimming has really taken off. On the way home, he said, "I am really proud of myself, Mommy.". Me, too, kid. Me, too.

Delicious

2011-07-13T23:52:00.000-04:00

Meg went to "cookie camp" at a neighbor's house this week. Great idea, actually. Her middle school kids ran the camp (under adult supervision) for a small fee to raise money for their vacation. I got her out of the house for three hours and then a plate of the most decadent cookies ever. You know, the good kind made with all the stuff that tastes so good and is so bad for your arteries. We also got some home made ice cream out of the deal. I probably put on 10 pounds just this afternoon. It was so worth it.

Swim team ends this week. I am amazed how fast Andy's swimming has come along (hers too for that matter). Next week during the mornings, he's doing golf camp and she's doing a dance camp. I'll still have one of the girls, er, young ladies helping with them in the afternoons and with pick-ups. I hope they have half as much fun as I think they should.

With that, we're into August and then school starts the 21st. Like that, the summer is just about over. I will be sad/thankful when it's over. This has been our first real summer vacation. It's been pretty cool. Actually, neat is more the word. It's been anything but cool here in Texas with our 100th day over 100 degrees with no rain.

I was wrong (Bjorn was right)

2011-07-12T18:24:00.001-04:00

There, I have said it publicly and out loud. Bjorn was right. Just this once.

When we were looking for a new house, Bjorn really wanted a pool and I really didn't. "It's not safe," I cried. "I want a yard," I moaned. "It's too expensive. We will never use it. We belong to a pool and never go."

But I was wrong. This summer someone is in the pool every day. Usually it's the kids and sometimes Bjorn takes a dip at night when he gets home. We have entertained friends and family and had a good time.

We added a pool fence with a key lock so the kids can't get out there without us knowing. So far, we are good about locking it. We must keep up with that. The kids have gotten so much more comfortable. Andy did swim team this year and can really swim now (not without us, of course). Meg isn't far behind. She has been in lessons for six months now and that combined with the daily swimming is really paying off. It's so nice for everyone to play in the pool. It's a rare place when everyone is happy and a pool is one of those places.

Special guest star

2011-07-11T16:14:00.000-04:00

Bratz dolls

2011-07-08T23:42:00.001-04:00

My neice (sister) had an adorable birthday party at one of those girls salons. Meggie wasn't quite having it, complete with peeing in her pants on the floor of the bathroom. But she got it together and was enjoying herself by the end. My sister's kids had a blast. I think kids aged four and older did better than the littler girls. Hilarious. Check out the little one on the left. With that scowl, she reminded me of a figure skate out for blood.

Corporate relocation

2011-07-07T17:55:00.000-04:00

We live in the land of corporate relocation. Seriously. I thought DC was bad with all the congressional jobs that came and went with whoever was in power. There was also a lot of military moves with people coming into the region. But I've never seen anything like this. Our good friends who moved in when we did and have kids about the same age? Yeah, moving away 11 months later. I can't imagine having to do that. I also can't imagine the expense of all this on companies. Seriously.

The amount of money companies are spending to move people is insane. So these nice folks will probably have $100,000 spent on the move inbetween travel for the family, realtor's fees, packing expenses and general relocation costs. And all this for people they just moved less than a year ago. It seems like a lot of money when everyone keeps crying poverty and not enough money for jobs and stuff.

Another family I know is moving to Asia for work. So in addition to the probably $100,000 on the general move (realtor's fees, moving costs, etc.), they also have to pay for private school in China for the kids, trips back and forth and then moving the family back at the end. I think they said it will cost the company about $300,000 a year for them to live in China. Wow.

Granted, these are mid to high level executives so not your average worker. But still. I'd love to see a study on whether all this money spent on relocation is worth it for the company. And I'm not just saying this because my friends are moving. Okay, maybe I am.

USA is awesome!

2011-07-04T23:06:00.001-04:00

He says.

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-04T23:03:00.001-04:00

Lost tooth #4

2011-07-03T00:42:00.000-04:00

Lost tooth!

2011-07-03T00:38:00.000-04:00

Andy lost his fourth tooth today. He has now lost all four on the bottom and the top middle two are wiggly. We are at my parents' ranch near Brownwood this weekend (or near Crawford as Dad likes to say). Funny, of his four lost teeth, two were lost away from home, one in Australia last summer and now this one.

Good thing the tooth fairy travels. The going rate is $2 in our house. Is that what he pays at your house? Bjorn though about giving him a $5 but that sets the bar pretty high in case neither of us has that kind of cash in our pocket some evening.

Feeding the dolphins

2011-06-30T00:13:00.000-04:00

Alt title: How Sea World got us to pay to give their animals dinner

Let's be real though - worth every penny, and not just because Frances bought the fish. It was totally cool. And what totally cool animals. Andy didn't want to feed them but spent a good 25 minutes just watching. I was impressed at that too actually.

The dolphins were pretty amazing. The fish come in packs of four so they would flirt with us for four fish and move on. Smart cookies. I bet they would totally work a room at a singles bar, too.

Sea World

2011-06-29T11:04:00.001-04:00

Let the record reflect

2011-06-28T23:56:00.001-04:00

See, she does occasionally sleep in a bed. Sure it's MY bed. I will move her upstairs before I go to sleep, but a dollar says she is back her before morning.

My very restless girl

2011-06-27T00:11:00.001-04:00

Give us liberty or at least a DVD

2011-06-26T16:26:00.001-04:00

We went to San Antonio for a volunteer gig and took time to check out the Alamo. We went when it opened at 10 on Sunday and it was still really crowded. And hot. Let's not forget how hot Texas can be in late June. The kids acted about as badly as you would expect from kids who have been up way past their bedtime two nights in a row and now have to be in the heat with all these people, thank you very much. I did learn some new facts like how the structure in this picture didn't have a roof until long past the time of the battle. I also learned that despite Andy's progress in lots of areas like reading and bike riding, he can still be a six-year-old.

He can ride a bike!

2011-06-24T18:24:00.000-04:00

Quite a year for this kid. He learned to read, swim and now ride a bike. He is riding his old, little bike instead of his newer bike. I think the smaller size has been easier to start on although the older bike was cheap quality to begin with. I bought it three years ago when Andy gave up his binky. I believe it was $25 at Target. I think we have gotten our money's worth.

My very restless girl

2011-06-24T00:42:00.000-04:00

Seriously, this kid can fall asleep anywhere. Of course only on her own terms when properly exhausted.

Trial and Error

2011-06-23T12:27:00.001-04:00

Andy and Barrett didn't believe me when I explained the box to the new lawn mower would break down in the pool and would not be a sufficient boat.

School pictures

2011-06-22T16:35:00.000-04:00

The kids' school pictures turned out much better. My scanning skills, obviously, need a lot of work.

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-22T15:32:00.001-04:00

Chocolate can be painful

2011-06-22T15:30:00.000-04:00

On the go

2011-06-22T15:25:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, my cousins visited from Austin. The kids had a blast! Margaret did consent to wearing a skirt in this picture, which is an upgrade over the nakedness she was rocking minutes before.

Bjorn has been commenting that I never seem to update this anymore. Part of the problem is that the kids are home for the summer. I have a sitter, but they're still bounding into my office occasionally, especially in the evenings. They also have decided that if the sun is only going to set for like 8 hours a day, that's about all the sleep they need, thanks. Mommy, however, disagrees.

I also got a new computer a few months ago and it's proven to be a pain to get my camera to upload pictures. Yada yada yada, too lazy, busy. Well, I just discover Blogger has added a new mobile upload feature. Watch out, Internets! I'm going to be going crazy. Maybe.

Test

2011-06-22T15:23:00.001-04:00

Trying bloggers mobile post feature.

Worst, most adorable kindergarten song ever

2011-06-04T16:15:00.000-04:00

He can swim, ya'll

2011-05-31T09:28:00.000-04:00

Andy can swim. Seriously. It's totally awesome, too. Turns out eight months of weekly swim lessons can actually lead to something.

We had a hard time getting into swimming. Andy didn't want his head under water at all, even in the bath, so swimming lessons were stress inducing there at the beginning. But we worked through it and the folks at the swim school are pretty amazing. I signed him up for swim team this summer and I've been a little nervous about it because they said kids needed to be able to swim 25 feet and I knew that 15 feet which he can swim didn't exactly add up to 25.

But then this Saturday, my sister and her kids and another friend came over and he somehow put all the pieces together and started swimming. It was amazing. The conditions have to be right, of course, he needs his goggles and he can't really take a breath during his stroke or anything, but he can confidently go from one side of the pool to the other and he's loving it. I'll admit I was nervous about getting a pool, but considering how much we used it this weekend and how hot it is in Dallas already, I think it was a good call.

Meg, however, still not swimming, but she thinks she can. So I've been making her wear a swim vest type thing so she floats. She'll probably be swimming on her own by the end of the summer and another session of swim school, but for now I've got to make her keep her head above water.

Ironwoman

2011-05-23T13:13:00.000-04:00

We went to Houston this weekend to cheer on my sister Mary who was competing in a triathlon. I must say, wow, those folks were really damn hard. Houston was a terrible venue what with the 92 degree weather and 95 percent humidity. Apparently a lot of people had to drop out during the day due to dehydration. Mary was amazing. She got through the 2.6 mile swim in an hour and a half and the 112 mile bike ride in under eight hours. Then she started to run and she developed a foot injury that made it nearly impossible to keep moving on it. The diagnosis at the time was a stress fracture or a split tendon. She made it eight miles (!) on a broken foot before she finally stopped. WOW. That's some serious determination. I was so amazed and impressed with her and all the other athletes. They are amazing!

I must say, I was inspired. I would love to do a marathon, but I'm not sure that's in my cards. I may run a 5k or something soon though. That's about my speed.

The day before checking out the bike transition spot.

The night before dinner with Team Queso at Olive Garden. There were about 6 friends from Austin and then 6 family members that came to cheer her on. It was awesome.

Pre-race decorations on her door. We're very clever using post-it notes and Post-it flags.

We waited for Mary at the 90 mile marker on the bike route. It was long and sweaty waiting but amazing to watch everyone. We also got to talking to a lot of the other families and friends of participants. It was so neat seeing all the support, too.

Our spot on the turn before mile 90.

Mary at the bike-out transition spot.

Mary beginning the run.

This is at the end, a picture of her damaged feet. She'll find out this week what the damage is and whether she can train to compete in the Arizona Ironman this fall.

Ironwoman

2011-05-20T10:38:00.000-04:00

This weekend I am off to see my sister compete in an Ironman triathalon. I am most impressed by this level of dedication considering thought of watching her run/bike/swim for 17 hours makes me tired much less the thought of actually running/biking/swimming for all that time. I don't care if she finishes the darn thing, but the thought that she's set such an impressive goal for herself and she's been working so hard to get there has me filled with all sorts of awe and inspiration. Go Mary!

My new toy

2011-05-16T22:02:00.000-04:00

For Mother's Day, Bjorn (upon my advice), bought me a composter. I had seen my friend's and thought it was pretty darn cool. It also, sadly, was pretty darn expensive so it's going to be a combination Mother's Day/birthday present. It arrived today and we set it up. It's already churning some banana peels, coffee grounds and some orange rinds. You are also required to put in baking soda and saw dust pellets, you know, to help avert the smell. It's pretty cool although I hope it's not overly complicated to use. I like that I can put it in the garage so I don't have to traipse to the back of the yard (and of course, that I have a garage!)

Things in Virginia have been dramatic with two surgeries in two weeks for two members of Bjorn's immediate family. I am thankful to report that both seem to be on the mend.

Things here, however, have been quiet. Work is quiet at the moment (for me, not everyone--they're all busy with a system implementation which is probably why my life is quiet) and so it's weird to be in the house all alone during the day sometimes. I'm only technically working 25 hours a week, but I've always gone well above that and with the new blur of the home/home office, it's even easier to just log in and doing another hour while the kids watch the Backyardigans before bed.

Fortunately, it's giving me an opportunity to reach out to some neighbors and meet others who work from home just for companionship in between conference calls. I do love my new set up, but I really miss my water cooler talk. It's also hard sometimes to feel part of a team when I'm off by myself. Of course, all this is just talk because in a few months, I am taking on a new responsibility and I know I'm going to be really busy.

I do love the freedom my new work from home set up affords. Like today, I picked both kids up at three and we played on the playground for an hour. Then we went to the library, made a craft and were home in time for a playdate. I love that my kids can do that now and we're not just pulling into the driveway at 6 p.m. like we used to. I love that we live in the kind of neighborhood where the kids can run over for an impromptu playdate.

Bjorn says I'm not very good at patting myself on the back and it's true. Sure, in the past year we have moved cross country, traveled with two small children to Australia, lived apart for three months, sold a house, bought a house, lived with my parents briefly, moved to a new town, started a child in public school, quit our jobs and got new ones, had my first mammogram and made a bunch of new friends, some of whom are awesome. So after all that, when things are quiet, I just don't know what to do with myself sometimes!

This and that

2011-05-06T21:28:00.000-04:00

When we were looking at houses, Bjorn really wanted a pool. My problem with the pool was I was nervous the kids would get into it when I wasn't around and that shit just scares me. So we started only looking for houses that had a separate pool fence so that it was separate from the rest of the yard. That meant the kids could have a yard and still have a separate pool. The first house we put an offer on did have that already. Then that fell through and we fell in love with our house. It didn't have a separate pool fence, but it looked it did at one time. So we made a deal with ourselves that we would add that fence.

So we did! And it looks great. Now I can open the door to the backyard and send the kids out to play without having to supervise the pool area. We were also able to padlock the pool with a combination lock. I feel better already. Now we need to find some toys to put in the new fenced area.

This picture is evidence I have the coolest mom ever. We had tickets to see the supremely hilarious David Sedaris at SMU a few weeks ago. I stopped to pick up mom and we prepared drinks to put in our purses to have at intermission. She's just awesome. And so was the show.

Also awesome? These guys. The other night, we had a terrible thunderstorm so they both converged in our bed. I snuck out to watch the news about Bid Laden and came back to this picture. I think I love them more than ever. Plus, sleeping children are sometimes superior to awake ones that stand over me in the bathroom stall asking if I'm done yet over and over and over and over again.

Said thunderstorms produced a ton of rain. Our creek is a major artery during times of storms so Meggie and I went down to check it out. Check out her little fashion statement, too. Who doesn't wear a striped dress with striped pants of a different vintage with a raincoat to match?

Glasses

2011-05-01T15:01:00.001-04:00

Andy got his first pair of glasses yesterday. He looked really cute. I'm glad I took a picture at Wal-Mart when we picked them up as they are already lost. Seriously, Internets, how is that even possible?

We have been retracing our steps to the Subway where we ate lunch, the couch store where we stopped to realize we should hold off to afford the better leather couch that we really want to the outdoor play place where we looked in vain for just a little bitty wooden playhouse to go in the backyard instead of the massive play structures they seem to sell. Nothing.

I am hopeful the furniture place will eventually find it tucked under something or the unfriendly lady at the play place will find them on one of her play structures (no answer from her today either because its Sunday or pouring down rain).

He looked pretty darn cute in his glasses, too. He's got an astigmatism, which isn't that big a deal, except one eye is stronger than the other and you need to balance those out with classes or run the risk the weaker eye will stop developing normally (apparently bad). Fortunately, on the advice of the opthamologist, the glasses we just a little over $100 so we can afford to get another pair if we have to. I may wait a week though and hope the others show up. I'm glad I didn't invite in the special lenses. I figured he wouldn't hold on to this first pair long. I had no idea it would be THIS short.

Egg drop soup

2011-04-25T12:38:00.000-04:00

Andy's school had a really neat project last week. They were to take a raw egg and somehow make a 7 inch by 7 inch by 7 inch container to house it safely. The container would then be dropped off a ladder by a teacher to see if the egg survived. Bjorn and he worked on it and had several different cool designs. The one they finally settled on was a square box filled with fruit loops. They practiced by dropped it out the game room window into the driveway (downside, now he knows the game room windows can be opened).

I am happy to report that his egg survived. It was all pretty adorable. You could tell the girl containers because most of them were heavily decorated with colors and other appliques. Some designs were quite clever. The most common container was Tupperware followed by a box. Many kids violated the size rule, but hey, it's kindergarten and not a science project so no eliminations. Many of those didn't do any better.

Bjorn wanted to know how many survived and you really couldn't tell except some kids were crying (I presume their eggs broke) and on some, you could really hear the smack when they hit the ground so you just knew it didn't survive.

Kitties

2011-04-21T02:29:00.000-04:00

Before Bjorn and I had been married a year, we got two adorable kittens that came to live with us in our rental townhouse in Alexandria. They were small and hyper. They made a ton of noise and climbed on all the curtains. But they were ours, an earlier decision in our marriage and we loved them. They were my babies before I had babies. Sadly for them, they became somewhat second class citizens when the kids arrived, but they still loved us and now there were more of us to love them.

I am sad to report that one of them, Coltrane, died last weekend. The whole thing is sort of surreal. She's just gone. She had been ill with a bladder infection a few weeks earlier, but since then, she'd put on weight and was becoming more adventurous again. Then she had an attack of some kind and died on the way to the emergency veterinary hospital. My sister Mary, the vet, says it's almost certainly unrelated. I will miss her.

When in Roam

2011-04-14T13:20:00.002-04:00

When we moved it, I put a gate on Meg's door to keep her from getting up in the night falling down the stairs trying to come to our room. Eventually, we started opening the gate at night so she could wake up and go to the bathroom, or more likely, come to our room. So when I steam cleaned the carpets a few weeks ago, I took the gate off and put it in the attic. Now she is free to roam the house after I think I've put her to bed. I find I miss that gate, but she's going to have to grow up some time, I suppose.

This is her asleep in our bed. She'll sneak past us and I'll find her asleep there.

Lately, I find she's sneaking out after I tuck her in and I'll find her asleep in random spots. It almost looks like a crime scene.

Here she is asleep in between the kitchen and breakfast room.

Asleep in her room but on her chair wearing a leotard.

Shocker - asleep in her own bed.

Asleep next to Bjorn. So cute.

Here is a tease - she was faking being asleep which I didn't know until I took the picture. She then gleefully jumped up to see herself in my phone.

Coffee and other hazards

2011-04-13T03:32:00.000-04:00

Last Monday after spending the weekend in Washington, D.C., for work, I eagerly began a conference call with a guy in Boston when I spilled coffee on my laptop computer. I didn't freak, it WAS an important call, so I just slowly dabbed up what I could and kept going. Afterward, I called my IT person who is the nicest, most nonjudgmental IT person I've ever met and explained what I had done. "Oh. Oh, my." That's how I knew I was screwed.

Per her advice, I unplugged the battery and all the keys, dried the board and waited. In the meantime, I went to Best Buy and bought a new computer.

I needed one anyway. My little Acer laptop wasn't really appropriate for every day work. I had bought it as a personal computer a couple of years ago, but converted it to full-time business use last year when we moved and I started consulting. Now that I've gotten a permanent gig working from home, I needed to upgrade to something bigger and better. The new computer is beautiful and gorgeous -- mostly the monitor, of course. It's huge. Bjorn convinced me to spend the extra $59 for the super big HD monitor which makes a difference. At first, it was almost too bright, but now I've sort of gotten used to it and I really love it!

So to bury the lead, I now have a permanent gig, working from home, traveling occasionally. It's a totally awesome set up doing a project I really like. The only downside of working from home is getting disconnected when I'm on my own all day so I've asked to be included in staff meetings and I'm making a point to stay in touch via phone instead of e-mail. The perk is I have no commute, except to take the kids to and from school really, which gives me a lot more time for the rest of my life. It's also incredibly flexible in terms of the kids. I am super excited that Andy can actually do swim club this summer. In prior years, I was always working so he could never really go. I do miss the energy that comes with an office though so I'm going to find some interesting coffee shops where people congregate just for the social aspect of getting out once in a while. I also found out a neighbor just took a job working from home three days a week so I will have a buddy on the block to become my work water cooler.

Fortunately, I've been able to get about 4/5 of the keyboard keys back on. Typing is a mess still as putting these keys back on is like rebuilding an antique clock -- lots of small pieces that have to be painstakingly put back together.

Milestone

2011-04-04T01:15:00.000-04:00

Meg is no longer a baby. That's been true for some time now, but the signs are all over right now. Recently we moved her out of her Britax Roundabout car seat for a booster seat. I wasn't in any hurry particularly, but after she threw up last time due to strep, the smell was sort of imbedded in the straps and I realized I was just done. She loves her new seat. It's a Graco booster with a little pink. It's adorable.

There are other signs, too. The changing table and crib sheets are in the garage to give away. She is mostly only in diapers at night now so her diaper trash can is mostly unused. Her sippy cup to regular cup usage is about 80 percent. When properly motivated, she can pick out her own clothes and get dressed, often wearing the shoes on the right feet.

Now don't get me wrong, I am thrilled with her progress and that she's getting more interactive and interesting (and opinionated) by the day. I am thrilled that I will not be pregnant again or have another baby. But my baby is growing up and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that.

Fashionist

2011-03-25T13:04:00.000-04:00

My poor kids have inherited my fashion sense. Look at young Margaret wearing her faux Ugg boots with her swim suit. I offered her Crocs but she chose these instead. Meanwhile, I think I need to feed Andy more. He eats, I swear, but those ribs showing are a little disturbing.

Strep, again

2011-03-22T22:28:00.000-04:00

Meggie Meg has a case of strep. I prefer it to some of the other options, like an evil cold that can't be treated, stomach flu or an ear infection but I'd rather be watching a new episode of Glee about now instead.

She had sort of a low grade blah yesterday and by last night, she was warm with fever, snoring like her father and generally feeling unhappy. That was all not great enough, but then she threw up a couple of times. Throughout the day, her fever came and went but she never quite seemed on the upswing. Tonight, naturally, was Andy's open house/math night at school starting at 5 so I never got her in to see a doctor. I decided that I'd take her to minute clinic for a strep test, only to get there too late to get on the wait list to see the nurse practitioner. I know, right? So we ended up at an Urgent Care down the street where we got the diagnosis.

That was all well and good. The doctor was nice, facility clean and the exam room had a TV (they all seem to here, it's nice). We were on our way back to CVS to fill the prescription when she started throwing up in the car. Then she threw up a couple more times in the parking lot. I must say, things to love about Texas. A lady in the parking lot came over to help me. She gave me a bunch of napkins and found a bag for me to put her clothes in. I didn't really need it, but how nice. Also nice? Bjorn met us as the door and promptly got to work cleaning the car and car seat. It really does take a village and I love it.

Honey badger don't care!

2011-03-21T15:47:00.000-04:00

I must say, if all nature videos were this nicely narrated, I would watch it all the time. Hilarious.

Ranch trip

2011-03-20T22:15:00.000-04:00

Jennifer and her baby. She's a regular Angelina Jolie.

Bjorn and Andy on the four wheeler. It was so. much. fun.

The Super Moon. On the clear night out in the country near Brownwood, it was pretty magnificent.

Dad and Andy after climbing the cliffs not far from the house. Andy absolutely loved climbing. Dad and I were cringing and giving him all sorts of advice and he just did it his way and it worked out.

Dad helping Andy shoot the .22. Andy declared that shooting guns with Pop was more fun than playing Wii. That's some seriously high praise from the six year old.

Bjorn mowed around the house and fence line, killing the stickers that are a real nemesis down there.

It was a little dusty down there. It was very dry, the river was low and there was a burn ban in effect so no outdoor fires or s'mores. This time.

Dad and Andy walking through the take out spot on the Colorado River. Normally, there's a river there and not a dry bed. We still had fun skipping rocks in parts that had water and chasing frogs.

Like I said, the four-wheeler was a ton of fun. The roads are still hard to find and in some cases, hogs have torn then up, so I couldn't go too fast, but it was still good fun to tool around on them. I usually had one kid with me which meant I was even more alert than usual.

We also found time to kayak upriver, spotlight animals (we saw seven deer the first night and two armadillos; five deer the second night), cruise around in the jeep, chase wild turkeys (we counted at least 10) and watch college basketball. It was a fun trip. Looking at the pictures, I'm reminded how much we did. No wonder I'm tired!

Reason #3948 for why I hate carpet

2011-03-17T13:41:00.000-04:00

I really, really hate carpet. It's a pain in the neck to keep clean, especially this off-white carpet that adorns half my house. With moving in trauma to the carpet, the frequent cat throw up, regular child messes and Andy's recent bout of nose bleeds, it's time to get it cleaned. I haven't done this in ages so I started asking for quotes. So far, the lowest has been about $400 to clean just half the bedrooms, family rooms and hallway. And that's before I added on cleaning the back staircase at $2 a step. This is a necessity due Andy's nosebleed the other night where he left a trail of blood from his room, down the hallway, down the back stairs and into our room. I swear we don't beat him. Much, anyway.

At these rates, I might have to suck it up and rent one of those carpet cleaners for $50 from the grocery store. I haven't tried to use one since circa 1995 when I moved out of my apartment in Alexandria, Va., and headed for life in the big city of Washington, D.C. My apartment there in Woodley Park had ancient hardwood floors. Sure, I could get a splinter going to the bathroom, but at least I didn't have to vacuum.

So has anyone tried getting one of those do-it-yourself carpet cleaners of late? Am I better off sucking it up and hiring someone at that price? Bjorn's Blackberry is about to implode so we've been thinking of getting him an iPhone, partially so he can follow the NCAA tournament on his phone and stop using mine. Which is better? Bjorn + iPhone and us cleaning ourselves or hiring professionals and no iPhone?

Blackmail photo

2011-03-16T15:59:00.000-04:00

The great big bed

2011-03-07T14:01:00.002-05:00

When we moved into the new house, one of our first orders of business was buying a new king-sized bed. With two little kids, it was impossible to have one of them in addition to us in the queen-sized bed and not wake up with bruised kidneys due to tiny, but powerful little arms and knees that seem to find the most sensitive spot to kick you at 3 a.m. after visiting complaining of a bad dream.

So far, it's been mostly a good thing. We actually like cuddling with the kids (most days), but the best part is being able to pull them into bed with us and going back to sleep instead of having to constantly return them to their beds. I know, I know, we're supposed to break them of this habit and we will. Eventually.

When Meg comes down in the middle of the night, she never just comes by herself. Instead she almost always brings some sort of accomplice in the form of a lovey (or multiple loveys) with her. I changed the sheets on Friday and this is what I found that had probably accumulated over a week.

This morning was unusual -- we had both kids in bed with us (usually just one and usually just Meggie). Andy fell asleep on our bed with his head on the foot of the bed. Meg started in her own bed, but woke up screaming something around 3ish having rolled over on her Elmo book that makes noise.

Genealogy for dummies

2011-03-03T12:20:00.000-05:00

So we have a new favorite show in this house. Well, I have a new favorite show and everyone else kind of likes it. It's NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? which is sort of a reality genealogy show. I know, right? How dorky, except it's kind of cool. So the premise is you get these "celebrities" and they work with professions to track down their family history.

We've done a fair bit of research in our family so I am familiar with the process and the search. My only real complaint is they make it seem so easy sometimes. Sure, it's a piece of cake when Rosie O'Donnell walks into the Canadian library and the researcher has her information and pulls it up like that. In the real world, you spend eight hours going blind trying to read cursive handwriting on microfiche until you finally find something, anything useful. Still, it's cool to watch. My sisters, mother and I are all into it.

Texas declares indepedence

2011-02-28T16:46:00.000-05:00

This weekend, we all went down to Washington on the Brazos, Texas, to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico. My dad has, well, we have an ancestor named George Washington Smythe who signed and they were inviting ancestors of the signers to come to the event. Some of it was a little corny with people dressed in period garb, but a lot of it was actually really cool. The best was on Sunday when they did a roll call of all the signers and family members stood up and were recognized. We had good representation with 14 people from our side and another 10 or so that we met there, but some families seemed to have dozens. It was really very moving to see as well as hear the individual stories. The favorite part for the kids? Playing in the pool at the hotel with my sister. Figures.

All of us getting ready for the roll call (thanks to Frances for taking the group photo and providing the blanket that we stole).

Mom helping Meg play on stilts. This was part of the kids section that focused on toys and entertainment kids of that era would have had.

My favorite photo -- dad with a bouquet of meat as we got ready for lunch.

We did it!

2011-02-25T10:09:00.000-05:00

So a few weeks (months?) ago, our town was considering rezoning our neighborhood from the elementary where Andy goes now to another about twice as far away. Both are excellent schools, but it would be a bummer for Andy to have to switch. Worse though, he would likely only be one of a few to actually make the move. The other kindergartner in our neighborhood would likely apply for an "in district" transfer and stay because he had an older brother in second grade. I could have done that for Andy, but in a few years, Meg would be coming along and then I'd have them in separate schools. I hated that it would split up the block with kids in different schools. My schedule also allows me to ride my bike or walk to pick him up and I wouldn't be able to do that any longer.

Anyhoo, good news, we fought and we won! Check it out. I even managed to get myself quoted in the newspaper.

Yep, he's ours

2011-02-23T09:33:00.002-05:00

Overheard last night as I was making Andy's lunch for today:

"Andy, why didn't you eat your lunch today? I see you didn't eat your sandwich or your grapes."
"Oh, that's because I was too busy talking."

Gifted

2011-02-20T23:07:00.000-05:00

Andy's school sent something home a few months ago saying that they'd already picked who they thought from his class was academically gifted, but that if I wanted, I could have him tested. I usually opt for things like that mostly because I'm curious to see the results.

Last week, the results arrived. They were interesting to see.

Ability
CogAT- 93 percent (gifted is 95 percent and higher) (note to self - figure out what CogAT stands for)

Acheivement
Reading - 65 percent (yeah, that one's way below 94 percent)
Math - 96 percent

Then we move on to the Qualitative where he had "0 areas" in the Standard Score teacher survey (he would need two areas out of five to be in the gifted range).

We did get a nice note that he's "not recommended for placement at this time.

I'm glad I had him tested though. It's interesting to see that he does have an aptitude for math, which naturally made Bjorn thrilled and me glad that he's got Bjorn's genes on this one. His reading isn't great, but then again, he's just started reading so it makes sense. I have known kids who were reading chapter books at age three so he's definitely not there.

Still, I really dislike that schools label kids with advanced aptitudes as being "gifted." Something about it doesn't sit right with me, as if the others aren't gifted, too. Course, it could be partly because my kid is just above average.

Tube top weather

2011-02-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

After two weeks with consecutive ice storms, this week has turned out to be gorgeous. High temperatures in the 70s, partly cloudy and breezy. Hard to argue with that. The water in the pool is probably still 40 degrees, but it's warm enough that I'm thinking of a time where I might actually get to use the back yard again. Jubilee!

Meanwhile, in rant mode here, what's with Texas's crazy conservatives these days? I find some of this stuff just absurd. So they don't want kids to have access to information on preventing pregnancy in schools and they don't want kids to have access to family planning clinics outside of school and they want to take away access to abortions.

It seems their only advice is "don't do it," but when that fails (because it will), then they want kids to also have babies, thus likely limiting their educational and financial prospects. It seems to me the best way to avoid abortions is to teach kids how to NOT get pregnant in the first place. This is going to turn me into an activist, I'm afraid.

Super Bowl/Winter XLV

2011-02-10T17:27:00.000-05:00

Hey, did you hear, the Super Bowl was in Dallas this year? I know, right? Who knew that? It also managed to coincide with the worst winter storm that's hit the area since the local TV station started covering meteorology in 1989. So that was last week, complete with four missed days of school. Cue this week and we had another, albeit more minor, ice storm that led to another missed day of school yesterday. My current work from home situation is handy for days like that in that I'm set up to do work already and can target special Yo Gabba Gabba sessions for times when I have a conference call. What's less than handy is having everyone home and in my space.

We are truly lucky to have a great neighborhood though. Last week and yesterday, we called each other to let the kids take turns playing with each other and our respective houses to give each other a break and keep the kids busy. I knew Southlake had a good community and was really family oriented and in this respect, it's absolutely true. We picked right and it's so far been pretty awesome.

Several dramatic things have been happening in the kids' lives. Andy has had his first break-up with a girl. That's right, he's six, but his school girlfriend gave him a talk last week about how she wanted Bart (Andy's BFF) to be her boyfriend instead. It was rather crushing for the little guy. He's clearly not really emotionally sophisticated to get all of this, but he likes her and doesn't really get it, especially when the break up means she and her new boyfriend can play blocks together and he can't. I'm trying to be cool, but it's hard to see his feelings hurt.

On a positive note, this kid is really putting the pieces to reading together. My children's author crush on Mo Willems continues as we love reading the Elephant and Piggie books. I didn't really get them before, but now that he's reading them to me, they're actually pretty clever and far, far better than most of the other early readers out there. If you have other favorites, bring 'em on. I need variety.

Margaret is also growing leaps and bounds. She's a bootiful princess and prides herself on getting dressed by herself (some days) and wearing a variety of shoes, dresses and hair accessories. It's adorable.

Both kids are getting into bike riding, which is awesome except for the subfreezing temperatures here. Andy has a bike with training wheels and we love riding the figure-eight of our block around and around. He's got the training wheels on still, but I love to watch it. Plus, I get some exercise myself and I tote Meg in the bike trailer and we ride with him. I just love that.

The great Texas snowpocalypse of 2011

2011-02-04T15:42:00.000-05:00

So we've had some unusual weather here in North Texas this week. Freezing rain, thundersleet and snow on Monday night created a frozen ice rink throughout the area -- too much for the one salt truck in town so school has been closed since Monday. I finally got out yesterday, Thursday, after several days and it was still icy everywhere, like at Andy's school below. Yeah, I think they made the right call.

Last night and this morning, we then got four inches of snow which has been a lot of fun as the temperatures warmed up a little and it's been soft and beautiful unlike the frigid teens and ice of before. All the school holidays have taken its toll, mostly on me trying to keep everyone entertained and fed. Poor Meg has come down with a good cold in the middle of this though.

Bootiful birthday princess

2011-01-27T12:05:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how it happened, but I have a very girlie girl, a very girlie girl who just turned three. Both are shocking facts for me right now. She got tons of clothes and dress up items for her birthday, including two poufy dresses, patent leather shoes and wings from my mom, a whole trunk of dress up clothes from Jennifer and fancy plastic jewelry from Tia. Just adorable. I need to count my blessings that I can get away with giving her a bunch of clothes for her birthday this year. She got a few toys, including some Play-Doh from Fafa, Candy Land from me and a wand from Mary, but by and large it was clothes and new bedding for her bed (not that the new bedding kept her in her bed overnight; she still ended up in my bed sometime between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. this morning....)

I am loving that she's turning to be so interested in girl things. Certainly I gave her plenty of opportunity to play with Andy's Thomas the Tank Engine trains and Hot Wheels cars, but she's very interested in clothes and princesses right now. I did get her Beauty and the Beast which we watched last night. Musically, it's not my favorite Disney show, but the message is clearly a good one. Belle is strong and smart and the Beast (eventually) seems to truly care about her and her happiness and not just be into her for being beautiful or having a pretty voice. That Prince Eric from the Little Mermaid is such a wuss and it's all about Ariel giving up everything for him and he's barely even interested in her as a person so long as she can sing.

Two weeks later

2011-01-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

With Meg's birthday in TWO days, it's time to finally upload the rest of the pictures that are suitable for public consumption. Mom has also told me I need to update the header on here so I need to catch the kids in a picture together looking as adorable and un-evil as they can be.

See? Wouldn't it have been great if they actually sat on the floor and watched the movie for more than 10 minutes? I would have been a genius.

This is how the party really was.

This is his buddy Barrett at school.

There are his other buddies and his part-time fiance. Note the kid in a three piece suit complete with a tie. Apparently there wasn't any particular reason for it, just because. Man, I love little kids for that kind of stuff.

Civics lesson

2011-01-21T13:28:00.000-05:00

So I've gone and gotten involved in something political. Funny that Bjorn who loves politics doesn't get into this while I who mostly hate it am all in the throws of it. What's happening is Southlake is doing some school rezoning right now. They have built a new elementary school on the other side of town and they're moving the elementary school kids out of a joint elementary/intermediate school into the new elementary school and making the other just an intermediate school. That makes perfect sense, but while they're at it, they're also looking to "rebalance" the enrollment at some of the others and apparently my block is low-hanging fruit so they're looking to move our 27 kids who are currently within walking distance to one school to another, bigger school down the road. Both are excellent schools, but it would stink to have just started here and have to move. A bunch of neighbors have met and we've started a petition. Take a look and see what you think. Don't sign it unless you live in Southlake (I know you were dying to, right?) Also, yes, I know there is a typo in it. It kills me that it's there and I can't fix it. Something about how it's unfair to change a petition after folks have started signing it, but still.

Next up is attending school PTO and school board meetings. It's going to be interesting, that's for sure. Let me know if you have good advice for this stuff. I've contacted the local newspapers and we're starting a letting writing campaign, but I am sure there are lots of good ideas out there.

Party pictures

2011-01-17T15:46:00.000-05:00

Andy at school wearing the crown they gave him. I gave out cupcakes to his class and everyone sang Happy Birthday with the phrase "Eat more chicken" from Chic-Fil-A at the end of every refrain. Why? Because they're five and six year olds. His teacher said it was totally organic so the marketers should be thrilled.

Mom got him a fireman outfit. Awesome! Excedpt the bullhorn actually makes awful noises. It may need to "break" her shortly.

Here is his party before I totally lost control of the group.

Well, that went...okay

2011-01-16T11:54:00.000-05:00

We had Andy's birthday party yesterday and it wasn't quite a Bataan death march with eight screaming six year olds, but perhaps not that far off. I had this great idea that we'd have a half-sleepover, which we'd be to at another kids' house before where the kids come over for a few hours in their pajamas for pizza, cake, games and a movie. I scheduled three hours thinking all but the movie would take 1 1/2 hours, then they'd graciously and happily watch the movie for the remaining time. Their parents would show up and the children would graciously leave having had a wonderful time.

It mostly went according to plan, however, they had no interest in the movie. That meant I had another 1 1/2 hours to entertain kids while were getting increasingly tired and rowdy. Uh-oh.

So here's what worked:
1) Having a party at home was nice. I had all my stuff and didn't have to schlep it somewhere else.
2) There was a little more room for error. When a kid claimed he was allergic to tomatoes, I could substitute yogurt. Course, I had to do that for eight kids, but that was fine. I was home; I had it.
3) I invited the parents to stay for a glass of wine. That was nice to get to know them a little better.
4) Lots of outside help. With Bjorn, Mark, Margareta, Dad and Elizabeth, we almost had enough adults to go man to man on the children.

Here's what didn't work:
1) It was at least an hour too long. If it had been over at two hours, everyone would have been happy (mostly me). But that last hour was where the problems started.
2) I bought Costco pizza because it's good, but the kids had no interest in good pizza. They wanted plain cheese Domino's/Red Baron pizza that looks and tastes like cardboard.
3) Eight kids was probably too many (10 really if you factor in Meg and my niece Emma who are three). I had 100 percent acceptance which I wasn't counting on. Six (four?) probably would have been better and more manageable.
4) Make it a single sex party. I invited my nieces and our good friend whose daughter is also in kindergarten. They played nicely with each other mostly, but there were two little girls from Andy's class and one in particular seems to play Andy and his BFF Bart off each other. Andy was in tears at one point because they said he wasn't their best friend anymore. Course, Andy did refuse to play the game they wanted to on the Wii.
5) No Wii should have been allowed. Only two kids can play at once and there was competition for it (see no. 4).
6) It actually rained yesterday so we couldn't send the kids out with a flashlight to look at the creek or anything and blow off some energy.

Meg's birthday is in 10 days. I am totally doing something more low key than this for her. And next year? I think I'm going to Chuck E Cheese.

The sleep monster

2011-01-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

Hey, look! Another post about my kids' sleep habits!

Little Meggie is my challenge in the sleep department right now. We have a nightly ritual of fighting with her to go to bed -- she's liking to stay up late and we're trying to make her go to bed earlier. After frequent requests (demands) to "rub my back!" and other things that she shouts from her gate, she eventually goes to bed. But this whole thing can sometimes take hours. I read somewhere that it helps if you let them think they're pulling something over on you, like sleeping with a toy they're not supposed to or sleeping in a chair (see picture above).

Of course, she starts out sleeping in her own bed and then sometime between say 3 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., the little sleep monster comes down the stairs, goes to Bjorn's side of the bed (thankfully) and climbs in with us. The worst part about breaking that habit is that we love it. On the one had, wouldn't it be nice to get an uninterrupted night of sleep? But then, she's just so adorable and cuddly! And on weekends, her climbing into bed with us means she'll stay in bed dozing until sometimes 9 a.m. Over New Year's weekend, both kids slept until almost 10 a.m. Seriously, Intranets, I haven't been able to sleep that late since sometime in 2004. It's heavenly.

Santa

2011-01-05T19:06:00.000-05:00

My cousin had a fancy Christmas party and sweetly invited the children (nice as she was to invite them, I won't do that again. Far too fun of a party to waste it keeping kids from smearing mustard on the white bookcases). She even invited a Santa who was adorable and so totally gay. Of course, he also totally relished the part he was playing and seemed to really enjoy himself. Here's a picture of all four kids together in one frame with Santa.

So Blogger is still giving me trouble uploading through Internet Explorer. I had to go to Mozilla to get the picture upload function to work. On IE, it keeps trying to make me go through a Google "Cloud Picker" and then tells me my photos failed to upload. Weird.

Nice

2011-01-04T12:16:00.000-05:00

Well, hello there, Internets. Meet my new friend, Damn You Auto correct.

(Thanks, Frances!)

Photo fail

2011-01-03T23:04:00.000-05:00

I have some cute pictures to upload, but Blogger has changed it's format to some sort of "cloud" and it's rejecting all my file upload. Is this happening to anyone else?

My boy can read, ya'll

2011-01-02T22:39:00.000-05:00

I know! How awesome is that? It's exciting! And, dammit, is shortly the end of spelling what we don't want him to hear.

Andy was sent home with a few very short books to read to us over Christmas vacation. That ends tomorrow so naturally I pulled those out tonight (along with his lunchbox from 2 1/2 weeks ago including some moldy apples. Yum!) He had a very short book on building a snowman, but he read it. He'd never seen it before and, sure, he struggled with a few of the words and had to sound them out. But he actually sounded them out (normally he gets frustrated with me and quits) and finished. I am so proud.

In less than two weeks, my boy turns 6. Dang, time hasn't flown necessarily, but six years? Come on, universe. That does seem awfully fast. I've made the executive decision to host a "half sleepover" for seven kids. The idea is they come over in their pajamas, play some games, eat pizza and cake, tear apart the house and watch a movie. My sister pointed out that the other parents should be psyched about the party since they might be able to go to dinner and a movie in that time.

So now that I've got to come up with some games. Ideas?

And now, I present some unrelated holiday pictures.

Cousin Frances et al with Mom, Dad and Elizabeth.

Dad and Margaret.

Dad presiding over a family meeting. Note the thing on his head along with the wine on the table. We know how to do a business meeting right, people.

Things that make Bjorn cringe

2010-12-31T11:44:00.000-05:00

Jennifer gave Meg a dress up set for Christmas. She absolutely adores it. And so does Andy.

Oh, the loot

2010-12-28T11:40:00.001-05:00

Here are the kids on Christmas morning. Note the matching pajamas. When Dad and I went shopping, we got four pairs for all four little cousins that matched. They are more boyish than girlish, but while the girls can wear blue, Andy would cry and whine (more than normal) to wear pink.

Here is Meg attempting to ride her balance bike. This is about as far as she's gotten on it. See the cookies and milk for Santa in the background. Santa was too tired (and maybe even a little drunk) after cooking his beef stew all day that it was actually a struggle to make sure to consume the cookies.

Bjorn's new shoes that despite my best efforts, were not exactly like his old ones.

Here's Dad in front of their house attempting to ride Mom's pogo stick. As you can see, he's wearing the back brace and suspenders he got for Christmas (I imagine he picked them out himself) as well as his Christmas sweater. It's a miracle we didn't end up in the emergency room.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-27T00:22:00.002-05:00

Wow. After weeks of planning, plotting, purchasing, stressing, listening to the whining choruses of, "I want it right now," and , "But what if I don't get any presents!" Christmas is over. Bjorn made his Julia Child beef borgonionne for everyone on Christmas Eve, and damn, it was amazing. Bjorn was a champ in that the recipe calls for about 25 different steps, including cutting and drying about 100 different pieces of meat, and takes about eight hours to make start to finish. Damn it was worth it though. I consider that one of the Christmas presents to me!

We had 12 people all together for dinner, including four children. It was awesome to get to use the full range of our house for entertaining, complete with using every dish in the house. It took four loads in the dishwasher to get everything clean. So fun to have room to get out all that wedding stuff and entertain on such a grand scale.

Dallas did get like two inches of cold rain that day, the first precipitation of any kind all month. I was insanely jealous of all the snow throughout the rest of the South and blizzard warnings on the eastern seaboard. Fortunately good wine, good food and good family eased my jealousy.

It was a lot trying to keep our family traditions from Virginia and merging them into the new world order here complete with my cousin from Sydney, my sister on crutches from knee surgery and my uncle in a wheelchair. Like I made the mistake of hauling all our presents to my parents which meant Christmas morning was more bare with just a few Santa gifts. We also tried rushing over to their house to open presents after stockings and Santa, but we managed to annoy them by being late and I annoyed my own family by rushing them. We'll figure it out.

Of course, what works this year most certainly won't work next as we are thrilled that Bjorn's two brothers, his mother and all the kids are planning to come for the holiday. That would be the five of us (plus or minus Jennifer who isn't sure), four siblings and their spouses, four kids aged four to 15, plus Bjorn's mom. I am glad to have a year to get enough sheets and towels for everyone, but that's a good problem to have!

So far, winners for the holiday:
Bjorn's homemade Swedish glogg
Meg's new Yo Gabba Gabba bath toys
Andy's Nerf basketball hoop
Bjorn's beef stew
This iPad from Dad (Bjorn is insanely jealous)
Mom's egg nog
Dad's wine selection
Meg's dress up clothes (Andy also uses the shoes for "tap dancing"
Meg's new kitchen
Super Mario Galaxy
All the new puzzles

Surprisingly, the biggest duds are what I considered the biggest presents for the kids. Andy got a remote control helicopter that's harder to operate than it seems. Meg also got a cool "balance bike" that she can't figure out at all.

P.S. I have discovered Boardwalk Empire. Damn you, HBO. That's good stuff.

The bike I spent weeks researching. I was so excited to see her take off on it and she just can't figure it out at all right now. They did spend an hour fighting over my uncle's stocking stuffer, an old school magnetic toy. Typical. I am so getting these kids a box next year instead of the toy that goes in it.