Oregon

I'm in Portland, Oregon for my LWML convention, sans Scott and Gracie. I'll be here for 5 days and I already miss them a lot. But my group is a lot of fun and I'm enjoying it so far. Kelly and her husband came and got me this morning at 2:30 so we could be at our driver's house by 3, then on the plane by 7. The check-in and flights were smooth. We had a 10 minute layover in Denver. We had honey-roasted peanuts and graham crackers on both flights, but by the time we arrived in Portland, we were hungry. It was 2:00 our time; just 12:00 local time. The last flight crew was very friendly and we were serenaded when we landed.
Everyone really has been super nice, from airport personnel to the locals riding the light rail helping us find our way around. Super friendly people. The city is pretty clean and open. There is a lot of walking space, biking space. It's a good, planned downtown district. Hard for those of us not used to walking and finding our way around, but you could definitely get used to it here.
We ate at a Red Robin for our late lunch, then checked into the hotel, then all of us crashed for several hours. We went to the convention center to register and get our stuff and scope things out. We met up with another group and went out to eat at Jake's Grill, a nationally recognized restaurant for seafood. I had Mediterranean seafood soup, kind of a minestrone with seafood and a seafood sampler that my SE Texas self thought would be more traditional seafood, but it wasn't. I wish I had taken a picture before I ate it. It was served in a cocktail glass filled with lettuce, some crab meat, some small boiled shrimp, a big prawn tail and a crawfish on top. Interesting. It was good. Enough since lunch was still riding my tummy. We had strawberry shortcake for dessert. An illusionist came by and did some tricks for us, which was really neat. My group is going on a tour most of the day tomorrow, but I'm going to be doing delegate stuff and can't go. I'm doing servant events in the morning and have some time in the afternoon to hang out. I think I want to go back to the area we were tonight and look around some shops.
It's just a couple of stops on the maxrail. There's an Oregon store and a toy store I wanted to look at. I can sleep in some tomorrow before my servant event. I'm looking forward to seeing more people. Pastor and Sally should be here. Having fun so far. :)

Walk down memory lane

Gracie was insistent on seeing her baby book and some old pictures of her. She is pestering her daddy to find her those night-nights and put her in them. There is no telling her that she has outgrown them; that they would be too small. Just like she insists she is still a tiny, tiny baby and she hasn't outgrown her zebra.

Saturday Party

We had a lovely time at Herman and Sherrie's yesterday. Gracie and the other kids especially had a blast. So many kids, so much family. Sherrie had rented a tent, tables and chairs. The heat wasn't that bad under the tent with the fans going. And the food was excellent. I swore I wasn't going to eat again for a week, but nah.

Update

Wednesday morning we went to the PN library kickoff at PN Park. It was crowded, but there were free snocones, popcorn and drinks for the kids, even door prizes at the end. Evan won a book and a ticket to a bounce place, which he was excited about. We went to sit by the water to blow bubbles, then we went to my house to get ready to go swimming at Maw-maw's.



Thursday was just Scott, Gracie and me. We went to the PA library to get books and movies, then out to lunch. We went to swim with Evan, Taylor and Emily at mom's house for Evan's birthday.
Friday was just me and Gracie for awhile, then I took her to maw-maw's to spend the night. Mom asked suspiciously what I had planned for the rest of the day. I cleaned Gracie's room, most of the kitchen and living room, packed her bag for next week and my luggage for my trip and cooked supper. Mellow day.
I've been listening to one of Scott's favorite series on audiobook - Honor Harrington. The first one was ok. I prolly won't read another though. Too much gore and blood with no romantic payoff for me. I finished Grimspace by Ann Aguirre, which was pretty well hyped but isn't a series I'll follow either. There are several others I have to read. I think I'll save them for my plane trip. The most consistent thing I've been reading is JD Robb's In Death. Just can't get enough. I love the characters.

VBS

Gracie had a great time at VBS this year. The final day was a family dinner with the kids singing. I enjoyed working with the little kids and other adults.

Tuesday

We got Evan yesterday morning and went to the movies. It was crowded. Unbelievably crowded. Fortunately Ellen and her mother had kids there and we all squeezed together. E and G weren't that interested in the movie. The only thing they got was "momma mia" from one of the previews. But Horton was an elephant and he had a flower. We left before it was over and came back to my house. We tried to get G to rest, but that's always a losing battle. We went to the movie at the Ned library - Madagascar 2 and they were better than last week. Then we went to play at Doornboos Park. Evan liked the ducks and geese and turtles in the pond. I'm sure we'll be back there again. We were able to come home and cool of before going to meet Mary with Evan. G fell asleep on the way to VBS, but she had a blast when she was there. She likes singing and dancing and playing with the other kids. Wednesday we're going to a library kick off party, then going to mom's to swim. Everyone's looking forward to that. Thursday is another library show and Evan's birthday. If he's with us, we'll probably go out for a special bday lunch. Scott will be off. That's the last day of VBS and there's going to be a family dinner thing. Next week will be the busiest of the summer for me. I'm at a workshop Mon and Tues, then leave superearly Wed morning for Portland, where I'll be until superearly Monday morning.

Funny kid stuff

Scott's sister was trying to talk to Gracie on the phone the other night. G's getting better, but stiff, trying to get a conversation going takes a lot out of you. You ask questions, sometimes she answers them, sometimes she answers the question you asked two questions ago. But she was trying.

Evan was born 20 years too late. His favorite song is "Livin' on a Prayer." That's right, kiddies, Jon Bon Jovi. G has a cat piano with a microphone, and he sings it loudly into the microphone. And in the car. At the top of his lungs. And is teaching it to Gracie. Cracks me up!

Scott is uber-polite, especially on the phone. Gracie's new phrase is "I"m sorry, what was that?" Just like he does on the phone. She's getting his unfailing politeness and my potty mouth. Such a gift.

I'm gaining weight. I'm really tired of the whole fight. I'm eating raisin bran instead of the sugar cereal; I'm eating whole grain bread instead of white bread. Yogurt for snacks. Eating at home instead of eating out. We're having such a nice summer, but it'd be great if I can still fit into my clothes by the end of it. Of course, I plan to be pregnant by the end of the summer, so it will be a non issue, but still.

Easy Monday

Monday we took it easy at home. G and I went to the grocery store in the a.m., but otherwise just hung out the rest of the day. Cooked, did some school work, etc, but just chilled. We made supper to eat with Scott before we left for VBS. G was excited to go and excited to be there. She danced around and sang during the music session. Just boppin’ around. Sometimes she’s better if I’m out of the room, other times it doesn’t bother her either way.
We’re getting Evan today and going to Horton Hears a Who at Tinseltown. The afternoon movie is Madagascar 2, which we’ve seen a million times, so we may go to the park instead. Or weed the flower beds. .
I finally found my gloves. I have been neglecting my overgrown bed

Amusing Dream

I had a dream about my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary Dee last night. I dreamed I went to their house and they had animal carcasses and hides in the yard and in the house. Wolves, lions, rabbits, deer, etc, waiting to be dealt with. I went in the house and was talking to my aunt, when Amanda's friend Allison came in, complaining that she has a lot to do, but doesn't want to do it, so there it is. (They were all mentioned at the party yesterday. I guess that's why they're all in the same dream.) By the time we come back outside, the carcasses are gone, magically. Uncle Bob said something about me letting rats crawl around in their house and not telling anyone. I told him that anyone who keeps animal carcasses in their house shouldn't be worrying about rats. I woke up amused ;)

Weekend Hijinks

We had a lovely Saturday with the family at M&D’s. Since Amanda will be out of town on Father’s Day, we celebrated early with Amanda’s enchiladas, cheese dip and coconut good stuff. The pool was back in shape, so we swam. Well, Gracie, Paw-Paw, Amanda and Todd swam. I’m too sunburned still and mom and nana were ill. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon. I’m all about relaxing days by the pool. ;)
Sunday we had church, then Gracie and I went to Hunter’s party in Crosby. Gracie had a blast playing with the kids. And raiding Hunter’s toys. He got a lot of good ones. It was nice to see and catch up with the family.
Then we drove back for VBS at our sister church in Nederland. I stayed to help, which was good and will be good this week. I can’t imagine just leaving her there. It’s good Scott’s the one who takes her to school usually. Otherwise Connie would be shoving me out the door every day, assuring me that they have enough help and I should, you know, go to work. She was fine, but we were wiped out.

VBS itself was unorganized, which I hate, but is understandable the first night. Hopefully Monday will be better. Some of the families we went to church with at Grace have moved membership to Holy Cross, so it’s so odd to see these kids who were toddlers the last time I saw them to be tall, lanky group leaders. Time passes, I guess. Sweet kids; good kids, the ones who were with my group.

General gripes

At Schlitterbahn, I witnessed an ugly confrontation between and old man and a life guard. The old man was observing the area close to a lifeguard station. An important station, where kids would try to go up into the chute to catch the big waves as they came out, dangerous. Toward the end of the day, the lifeguards were blowing whistles constantly. No real authority, but tried to keep it moving. We saw several lifeguards at that station while we were floating around and some were more active than others. Anyway, the old man wanted to make a complaint with the lifeguard’s supervisor, which he did and made the lifeguard mad. Words were said, ugly words. The lifeguard, all of 18, threatened to whip the old man’s ass. His supervisor helped him back off, but seriously – the old man called him lazy, which I’m not sure about, but I did notice the lifeguard not being as quick as others in that station with the whistle. And the old dude was right. That is an important job. One lapse, one slip letting kids get away with being stupid and they’re going to try to be stupider. Blowing the whistle on the minor stuff keeps them trying to get away with the minor stuff. Letting it slide gets them to want to do worse. Just watching and observing the lifeguards, especially in the kiddie area – those are important jobs. Water can be very dangerous. So there were probably better ways of handling it, but old dude was probably right to complain to the supervisor. Lifeguard should have accepted the criticism and done better next time. As it is, he quit or was fired. Not the best end to the situation.
Another thing that broke and we saw on the news was the old lady being tasered by the cop in Austin. I don’t know how that could have played to be more palatable, but seriously. How many times does a cop have to ask someone to do something before there are consequences? The lady refused to comply 9 times. What’s the limit? Old ladies, drug addicts, criminals with guns? He gave her plenty of opportunity to comply. Dude’s a cop. Do the immediate, then deal later, but comply. What lesson is that teaching? I recognize my usual aligning with authority, but I don’t see how that could have been handled differently. Did we want to see -him physically manhandling her? Pulling his gun? Calling for back-up? Letting her go? Not a good message. I think even the announcer on CNN was a little confused about it. It sounds bad, but seriously – 9 times told to do something and still refused? Where is the line?

Schlitterbahn Thursday

We got up early and ate a sucky continental breakfast at the bargain motel. We’re not like Amanda and Todd – motels are just a place to sleep, not part of the package. I hate spending money on them, so it was decent, but not great. The best thing about the breakfast was the waffles shaped like Texas. We got out stuff together, checked out and headed to Schlitterbahn. Going on a weekday helps. Getting there early helps. We got a fantastic parking space. Her wagon with the all-terrain wheels helped both days, on the beach and into the water park. We wheeled our stuff in, got our wristbands and found a place to park our stuff. We stake out a certain spot in a certain little area and leave our stuff. It hasn’t been bothered the last few times we’ve been. We go back and check every once in a while, but it’s basically safe. We let her play in the kids park then went and floated in the lazy river. It was the best day. We all floated on the double floats, we all swam in the water with the current, all kinds of configurations. Gracie didn’t fall asleep this year. The best part was Scott and I both sitting in the double float and her between us or laying on me. We rode the waves together and had so much fun. So relaxing. Getting there early also helped avoid most of the bane of all vacations – teenagers. They ruin their parents’ vacations too, that’s why they foist them on the rest of us. I don’t know how they don’t realize how dangerous it is to both themselves and others when they try to stand on the floats. Dumbasses. We left again, around 3. It was a long, good day. We drove around and looked at the Strand, then had dinner at Salsas. There was a big line for the ferry, but we made good time once we were past it. All in all a very good vacation.

Wonderful Wednesday

We went to Galveston Wednesday and Thursday, Scott’s days off. We got ready and packed up early Wednesday, but the trip took longer because I wasn’t paying attention and missed the 124 exit. We went through Houston, which wasn’t bad. We rented and umbrella and chairs on the beach and just chilled. I’m not much on being in the ocean, a change from my childhood. I have a hard time now with what is potentially under the water with me. Gracie and Scott love it though. I know when she gets taller, she’ll enjoy riding the waves in a float. She’s almost there now. She loved the water and loved the sand. We packed a cold picnic and stayed there until 3 or so. Then we went to check into our motel, take showers and evaluate the sunburns.


This is our first vacation outing, and of course, a lesson in sunscreen. We used it, but not enough. I’ll post pictures. We had dinner at Casey’s, which has changed their menu. It was a very wonderful day. I went to bed early because I was hurting and tired, but Scott and Gracie watched a few movies we brought on my computer.

Madagascar movie day

Today was our first foray into our movie Tuesdays. There were a lot of kids there. Schools and day cares and groups in matching shirts. I brought us some baggies to share popcorn and some sippie cups to share a drink, which worked out ok. We shared a large popcorn (will get smaller next time) and a large icee, which was gone quickly. We’ll probably go with a real drink next time; it will last longer. I overestimated the attention span of Gracie for a movie that we’ve seen 15 thousand times already. She doesn’t like to sit still or alone. She was pretty much badly behaved at both movie attempts. Next time we’ll also sit closer to the bottom and on the edge because they both had to go potty. At separate times. And I think me reading on my phone disturbed the people behind us. All the kids enjoyed it, I think. They all like to Move It with King Julian.
We came home and ate some pizza, then they played. I should have had them take a nap first. There were sounds that I imagine are usual coming from G’s room. She’s really particular about having the door closed to keep Lily from pooping in there. There was some happy, some upset, as in someone took this from me kind of thing. I wasn’t asked to come and officiate, but I did check in some. I guess this is Evan’s one chance to be the big brother and G needs to learn to get along with other kids in her house. We watered the plants. One thing that I’m going to try to break Evan from is gloating. The “look what I have, I have it and you can’t have it” type of thing. Like Gracie would even care if he didn’t point it out to her. I’m sure it’s done to him on a regular basis, that and “mine is biggest.” Who cares? It’s going on your mouth, there is more, who cares how big it is? Just a way to cause strife.
But they’re funny together. They spent some time before the box office opened and the area got crowded to run from me to the wall. Seeing him go (I’m the fastest, see I’m the fastest, Gracie, see I’m the fastest. No shit Sherlock, you’re a year older and inches taller.) then her following behind, blonde curls bouncing.
So cute to be so bad. We went to another movie at the Nederland library. We had to leave early because G was bad. She was tired. So we went home and she had to lie on the couch for awhile. She didn’t do that very well. She finally disappeared into her room, then Evan stopped playing his game and disappeared with her. They played for awhile. Then we had some watermelon and brought Evan back to his mother.
Gracie did not fall asleep on the way home, nor did she want to lie down. She ate more watermelon and demanded a sprite, which was new for her. Her daddy is reading her a book now before her bedtime.

I finished listening to a book called the Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. I enjoyed it a lot, though if I had been reading it, I would have skipped a lot more than I did on the CD. If I knew more about history, or cared more, I would have been disturbed with the anachronisms. It’s set in the 1100s. It seemed like 2 different stories. There was a gory murder mystery, then a kind of romance toward the end. The main character was a female forensic pathologist. In the 1100s. Called in to solve child murders. Very interesting. The romance didn’t pan out in the end for me. The things he loved about her would be nullified if she became a wife. His ambitions would be set back if he married her. The solution was the king kept her in his employ as the death doctor and the guy became an Archbishop, a cleric, but their affair continued and later had a child. I have issues with that. The whole book was filled with religious and political intrigue. Also a lot of ignorance of the masses. I enjoyed the book, but it’s not a series I would repeat.
I’m working through the In Death series by JD Robb. There are some I’m listening to and some I’m reading. I like them a lot. Eve Dallas is a great protagonist.

Monday

I didn’t have a lot of plans for Monday. Evan was staying home with his dad, so it was just G and me. We saddled up and took a book to the post office to mail, then went to register for the PN reading program at that library. G played a little bit on the playground there. There was a boy there, much too young to be there alone. I’m not proud of myself for not even asking where his parents were, much less calling the police, as mother suggested when I related it to her later. I’m really appalled at myself. I’m a teacher, for God’s sake. It’s against the law for me to turn away from that sort of thing, but that’s exactly what I did. I just didn’t want to get involved and that’s wrong of me. I’ll do better next time.  And of course, there will most likely be a next time.

We went by the PA library to drop some books off, then came home to load up and go to my parents house. My dad was off and G really wanted to go see them. It was nice. Mother made hamburgers, G pretended to eat some of one. She was fascinated with a baby swing – made them get it from the garage and put it inside for her to swing in. She was too big, but it occupied her for a good long time. Mom had an errand to run in town and we wanted to check something at Kroger’s, so we went into town. (Town, being Orange – just a euphemism for leaving Little Cypress and going into Orange proper, where there are stores and such).
We’re going to Galveston Wednesday and G is super excited about it. She’s super excited every time she gets to put on her bathing suit. She exclaims it loudly and in a shrill voice that we get to put on our BATHING SUITS. Since my parents have a pool and they were the last ones to take her to the beach, much of her beach stuff was at their house, so we gathered it up. She was too excited. We had to tell her about 20 times that we had bathing suits at our house to bring and didn’t need the ones from there. I got 2 hats from Dad for Scott and me. (Our summer stuff disappears in the garage every year. It’s not just that Scott can’t find it; I can’t find it either, so we have to re-buy swim shoes, etc. Pitiful) I took her collapsible chair, her floaties and she insisted on a swim ring, which I don’t think she needed.
The real fun started when we got home, though. We are only staying one night, so we don’t need too much, but we were talking about it and going ahead and packing some stuff up. She was very much into that part. She comes into the living room with her arms full of clothes from her drawers, declaring that these were her clothes for Galveston. Sainted hubby was trying to talk her into putting the clothes back and putting on her pjs for the night. She asked him,” Are we going to Galveston in our night-nights?” She wanted to go right then and was upset that she wasn’t able to do so. She was running around “helping.” I sent Scott out to clean out the car, which was a wreck. She got him a plastic bag to put trash in and went with him. She came back inside wearing her night-nights, her Easter hat, blue shoes and her unicorn backpack. I wish I had gotten pictures. As Scott was putting away the things he had collected from the car, she was also going through the basket, putting what she could on and playing with the rest.
Her beach toys were still in the living room, and I told her to bring them outside to her daddy so he can put them in the car. She gathered them up in her arms and wanted me to get up and open the back door for her. I was busy, so she dropped the toys, ran to the back door, opened it, then came back for the toys. What a problem-solver!!! I was so proud.

Dream Delusions

Dreams last night - I dreamed I was running from an alligator-like thing with a long snout with a bulb at the end - I think it's a gavrial. Anyway it was under my porch and I couldn't leave. It kept coming after me.
Then suddenly, it was a ferret I coulndn't get rid of. I tried leaving it at the store, but it kept coming back to me. Creepy.

Weekend Warriors

This weekend was nice and relaxing. G spent Thursday night with Maw-maw and paw-paw, so she and mom met Amanda and me at Jason’s Deli in Beaumont for lunch. Jason’s Deli, aka, West End Wanda Warehouse. It was jarring. We ate on the patio and the weather was nice, the company was good and G behaved herself, to a certain extent. She and I went shopping with Mimi at Kohl’s where I spent too much money, and Target, where I just bought a mondo-huge box of Capri Suns. Stinking Kohl’s keeps putting things on sale and I have to buy. G now has just about every cute summer dress they have.


Saturday, G and I went garage sale-ing. We pulled in a good haul. Down the street we got a book that sings, a little pumpkin for Halloween and a pretty Easter statue. I’d like to have more Easter stuff, and I like all holiday things. We had to wait for the Civic Center to open, so we went to Nederland. At one, she got a pretty shirt, some overalls, a baby and a pair of skates. I got a 5-senses painting model. I haven’t looked inside it yet. I figure it can be something my students can do next year for extra credit. I got a waffle maker, a Halloween photo frame and some Easter tree decorations. At the next one, I just bought a trunk for $20. It’s a nice trunk – has wheels. It’ll look really nice once I get the living room cleaned up and figure out what to put in it. I think G will put her stuff in it too, but we’ll fight that battle if the living room ever gets cleaned up. The Civic Center was crowded, but full of vendors and things. Lots of kids’ clothes and toys. Of course, G wouldn’t let me look at the kids’ clothes. I got some puzzles to take the place of one in my classroom with lost pieces, several Bible themed puzzles for her and some cute little ice cream cups at one booth; a pretty framed Easter cross stitch (that I’m going to put into a nice frame) at another; G bought a toy wheelbarrow for 25 cents and pushed her new baby around in her new wheelbarrow. 50 cents worth of happiness right there. I also got some muffin tins that I needed too.

We came home and unpacked and played around for awhile. She watched her new Elmo movie a few times. I looked at recipes and tried out the waffle maker. We went to visit my mother for a few hours, then came home and went to the grocery store. Then Scott got up and we watched Wall-E and cleaned up the house a little. Wall-E was really cute. I don’t really know what kids would get from it, but it’s a cute little romance. I loved Eva. They did a great job demonstrating personality traits without speech. Showing, not telling, a great storytelling characteristic.
Since we’ve been doing the bed time routine (lotion, story, song, bed) G has been going gently off into the night and sleeping all night. She hasn’t crawled into bed with me at all in the last week or so. And she isn’t wet when she wakes up and goes to potty first thing. We’re making progress.
Sunday morning I got all of our stuff prepared. We’re not having Sunday School for several weeks, so there wasn’t anything to prep there. I printed out our stuff we’re writing to make copies of. I looked for recipes. I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen. We decided to go to the Lotus Festival after church since it was so close, so I packed us a cold lunch to eat before we went. It was ok – the same as usual. It has pretty flowers, but I don’t know why it brings people in from different places. I saw one of my students from last year and one of our former SS students, who acted really weird.
We came home; Scott went to sleep. I worked on waffle recipes and Gracie helped and played around. We read a few books together. She ate 2 of the floppy waffles.

We had soup for supper. I wanted to be woken up with the vacuum cleaner today, since Scott was going to vacuum. Instead I got up about 10 times last night to use the restroom, then woke up again to G opening her door, closing her door and climbing into bed with me. It was probably 6:30. She was ready to get up. I was not. She bothered and pestered me until I woke up. Which I am. We’re eating cereal and watching Diego.
We’ll see what today brings. We need to go to the library.

Waffle Woes

Gracie loves waffles, so I've been looking for a waffle maker so we can make them instead of buying them. I got a $2 waffle maker when we went garage sale-ing Saturday. Of course it didn’t come with a manual, so I’ve been experimenting. I looked online, but all I found was that this brand is a very good brand. People have used them and found them reliable for decades or more. The one I have is old, but well maintained. I found a waffle recipe that calls for yogurt, which I have a lot of and need to use, so I tried that recipe today. It’s different than the one I used yesterday, which required a lot of batter to fill in the maker. I followed the same steps this time, filling it full. Whatever the difference in ingredients, this recipe floweth over. I cleaned that up and put less in next time. They taste delicious, but they aren’t crispy. I looked up crispy waffle recipes, and got some tips, but it’ll take a trip to the store. The yogurt included in the recipe used was So good, but no one’s going to want to eat them because they’re floppy. I’ll try to toast them before serving.
I also a recipe for puddingwiches – pudding and peanut butter and milk spread on graham crackers and frozen. Delicious. Of course, the only instant pudding I have is French vanilla, so you can imagine how the result looked, but still – yum.

Family Friday

I'm hanging out in bed with my husband, waiting for 9:00 a.m. to meet my sister's firmly adhered to directions never to call her before 9:00 a.m. I know she's up. And there she is. ;)
We're supposed to go to lunch together, Mimi, Gracie, mother and me. I'll try to take some pictures. I'll try to put on make up too.

I've been working on church stuff and getting a lot accomlished. Much more to do. I volunteered us to write curriculum for multiple age groups for about 5 weeks. We have good ideas. Scott is my academic resource here. In about 2 minutes from him, I got a "Don't give me those eyes" and a go-to-hell glare.
This is us at none of those times. :)

Tired of each other Thursday

My husband is a saint when it comes to dealing with the kids. I would have left them (and me) at several places along our way today, but his unflappable self stuck with us. Even when I gave him my sticky ice cream wrapper and Gracie held her whole ice cream out to him wanting him to wrap it back up. He insisted that she could do it herself, but she demurred loudly that she "cain't", which drives sainted husband batshit usually. Today he just argued patiently with her that she could. I was thoroughly amused.
So today. I got up and showered. I "played" Avon until it was time for Gracie and me to go get Evan, which she was again, super excited about.
As per usual, neither one of them ate much breakfast, even though they were hungry. Our new gardener Evan watered the plants, then we watched Thomas the Tank Engine for awhile. TtTE is creepy. Like Care Bear creepy. I'll be having nightmares tonight. We had errands to run, so we hopped to it. We went by Lamar to pick up my diploma. We had an imprompto picnic on a bench. I tried to get a pic of them together, but the camera on my phone wasn't working well. We went to the movie theater after that to get tickets to their special summer movies. We had to wait a while for the box office to open, but we got 10 movies for 3 people for $15. That's $0.50 a movie, people. What a bargain.
Then we went to the mall playground and ate at that "shrimpy" place. They had fun and played until they were both glassy eyed. We went to a Blockbuster that was going out of business to see if they had any movies. Evan and Gracie both found armfuls. We didn't get them, but they had them picked out. So many Thomases and Care Bears, but no educational ones. Just one Sesame Street and no Dora or Diego's. So we got sci-fi ones instead. Evan was very disappointed, so I bribed him with an ice cream bar. I know I'm the worst mommy/cousin ever. But I wanted one too. So we all had one except the sainted husband. We came home and they watched more Thomas, got into fights until we went to the library reading program kick off. It was a magic/puppet show and once they got up close enough to see well, they loved it. There was a snack and a cookie cake, more junk food. It didn't do much good though. Gracie was asleep almost beore we left the parking lot and Evan was dragging pretty heavily too. We brought E to his mommy and Gracie to my parents and SH and I went to Beaumont for our traditional date night. Which ends now because I can't keep my eyes open.
Gnite

Water park Wednesday

After a complete night’s sleep I woke up to the alarm and picked up a little, did dishes, started laundry and started picking chicken off of last night’s supper to make chicken salad for lunch today. Scott went to get Evan on his way home and Gracie was super excited to see him. She’s so cute, squeeling and trying to tell him everything and show him everything, even though he was here yesterday. He’s not that much older, but you can see it sometimes. She seems really young about a lot of things. So they ate breakfast, again not much of one, either one of them. Evan doesn’t like cereal either. He just picked out the marshmallows. Gracie did a little better, but as soon as he was done, she was done too. I kept them both at the table picking at their food a little longer by going through our plans for the day with them, letting them know what we were going to do when.
We got a later start than I had hoped. Scott stayed up and went along. We had to pack lunches and snacks and bathing suits and drinks, then gather up library books, etc. We had one false start, then as we were pulling out of the driveway, my mother called because she wanted to stop by and say hi to Gracie since she was in town for a Drs appt. I wasn’t enthusiastic about this because Gracie likes Maw-maw best and wants to always be with Maw-maw, but it went fine. She did want Maw-maw to clean off the seat and come with us, but she didn’t cry hardly at all. And really, I haven’t heard one mention of needing to go see Maw-maw or having them come to get her in “just a minute.” Even when she talks to them on the phone, she sounds happy to be with “my mommy.” She’s doing thus and so with “my mommy.” That’s probably the biggest perk about the summer time. I’m not sure if it’s because I just have more time to devote to her or what, but the fact that she really wants to be around me makes me feel good.
We stopped by the post office, then went to the Groves library to sign them up for the reading program. I hadn’t been there before. Scott is on their “most wanted” list for a book he swears he returned. They have a really nice romance section. Even though we live in Groves, we pay to use the PA library just because. Gracie did her usual act like a heathen act when we were there. She likes to run through the aisles then scream when you tell her to stop. We left there and went to the PA library to return things and get new movies. Gracie was not well behaved there either. She was loud, she kicked the kiosk when she was listening to the book commercials and she had to be held. But we left with our sanity. Evan was much better behaved, content to play with some of the toys in the kids section. The children’s librarian seems to be on drugs. I’m not impressed with her at all.
When we got to the spray park, it teemed with children. Lots and tons of children. Too many children to take good pictures with. There was a bus from BISD there. Doesn’t Beaumont have a place they can go? Seriously! We couldn’t even find a table to have our lunch. We went back to eat by the water and tried to avoid mosquitoes. They each at about ½ a pb cracker and some chips then we went to fight our way to a shady spot at the spray park. It was horribly crowded. I got an Avon order from it, but still. We’re going to use the Groves on from now on. Not as big or fancy, but less crowded and just as fun. They played there until they were both glassy-eyed. We came home and Scott went to bed. I offered to let them help me bake cookies, but they watched a movie instead and played in the living room. I made pizza for them later on, which they didn’t eat much of either. Hopefully E gets real food at home because here he’s surviving on chips, pizza and Kool aid. G does better, but not a lot. I’ve tried to avoid taking them to McD’s all the time in the interest of health and money, but they’re not into soup or sandwiches, cereal or pancakes.
I had a Board of Education meeting a church, which ended with Scott and I beginning a new phase in our religious life. Overwhelming, but it was time for us to step up. I’m looking forward to it. Scott, not so much. “It will be a new challenge. You know I’ll be here to support you no matter what.” That’s a direct quote from Mr. Underenthusiastic.
Tomorrow we are going to get Evan and run some errands in Beaumont, like picking up my diploma and buying movie tickets. We’ll see what happens.
I was so flattered when Gracie yelled “Mommy” and came running when I got home, like she hadn’t been around me all day long. She was pretty needy for my attention too. I like having Evan here because it teaches her what it’s like to not be the center of the world and he entertains her a lot.
For her bedtime I took her to her room and put lotion on her hands and arms and chest and back. She’s had some dry spots and we were in the sun today. Then we read a little book, sang a song and said our prayers. We talked about seeing Evan tomorrow and she pretty much went straight to sleep. Like I’m about to. We’re all beat from all the fun we’ve been having.
Nite all!

Tuesday with Evan

I set the alarm this morning to get up. I was up late last night buzzing around the net. I ordered all of G’s birthday party stuff; registered with my student loan people and did some other things. Tuesday is trash day and I got up, loaded the dish washer, cleaned up a (very) little then went out to the garage to start breaking down things to go to the curb. Scott, who has been told to do this and hasn’t got home just as I was breaking down the first box, and we got a lot done. The garage looks a lot better. A lot of things had been flooded when it rained so much earlier this year. We had about 8 big trash bags of cans to sell. Scott hasn’t sold them yet because the price went down $0.20 per pound, which is too cute ;) Of course, I’d rather them be roach motels in some else’s garage, so he’s going to take care of it tomorrow.
I went to meet Mary to get Evan in BC. We had breakfast then I took the kids to the park by my school. We played at the tugboat island there, then went to the river to watch the boats. They were a lot more interested in the boats than I thought and we stayed there talking to a lady and her dog for a long time.
We came home and I tried to feed them chicken noodle soup and bread for lunch, but Evan wouldn’t eat, then Gracie wouldn’t eat, so I ate a lot of chicken noodle soup.
We played outside with the water hose and kiddie pool for a long time, until we started feeling the burn.
We came in to play inside. Evan played a v-smile game. Gracie was trying to talk him into playing dolls, but he wasn’t going to. She said he can play with the boy dolls, then brought out the cat in the hat. Which, of course, he didn’t play with. They finally both ate a frozen pizza, then watched Madagascar 2 with popcorn. Then we brought him to his mommy.
You can tell that he has older siblings, at least an older sister. He likes being first and won’t let G go first or take the first turn because she’s a girl or she’s younger. We had a Thomas the Train Engine cup that we got from their house last year sometime and he is trying to figure out a way to take it back home with him. He’s funny but sweet sometimes. We'll play again tomorrow at the spray park. Maybe Scott will come too. It was a good day.

G was tired. I had a dinner meeting with the ladies I'm going to Portland with later this month and G was not well behaved. I was done being mommy when I got home. There comes a point where Daddy has to take over and mommy needs a big drink and to just be Laura, not mommy, for awhile. He's changing her into night-nights and hopefully he'll have her in bed before he leaves for work. And I can go to bed early too.

Forgot to mention . . .

Scott and I have been teaching Gracie the Aggie War Hymn. And she's pretty good at it. Soon she'll be humpin' it. In a good way.

Let's See What Happens

Today was a day. Ha!

I woke up to Scott mowing the grass after he got home from work. Hurray! To celebrate, I made us pancakes. Gracie woke up the same time I did and helped by breaking eggs, stirring and pouring into the pan. Carefully.

But first she pottied in the potty. Oh the horror of being excited about that, but here it goes. Of course, later in the morning as she was changing into her swim diaper, she peed on the floor - but the day started on a positive note.

She had a pancake, grapes and a yogurt cone for breakfast. Well, that's what she had on her plate. She didn't really eat much of it, which is ok with me.

We were going to set up her frog pool and play at home today, but I couldn't find the pump, so we dressed and went to the spray park. We spent a few hours there and she had a good time.
We went to the Post Office and Walmart, where I'm never going again. Gracie had me write down what baby dolls she wants for her birthday, which is all of them, espcially the Dora ones. Those looking for birthday presents, Walmart also had a Dora game rug that was neat, and she needs a ceiling fan for her room. And she wants baby dolls.

We struggled today together. I don't like being disobeyed and I don't like her not listening to what I tell her to do. She is fine by herself as long as I'm not doing anything engrossing or important. The minute I start doing anything productive, she starts getting into stuff - lotion and soap in the bathroom, scissors, gathering up snacks, breaking stuff, etc. I sit down to do a puzzle with her, something I enjoy and we can do together, and she wants to sit in my lap and do it, which just doesn't work. She won't take a nap and she won't stay in her room unless she wants to do so. Bedtime is still a struggle for everyone. Like now.

Tomorrow we're set to get Evan, so hopefully that will be better.

Phrase of the Day: Allrighty-roo! I've never said that before. I'm not sure where she got it from.
Ready Freddy?

Funnies : She thinks she needs corn holders to eat corn on the cob. She spends a lot of time arranging them just so, then bends over her plate to eat while the cob is still on the plate.