For your interpretation

Last night, I dreamed that my family was spending the evening with the Jolie-Pitts. We had a splendid time. Brad was a bit more talkative than Angie. Angie was a little busy being the hostess and making sure everyone was taken care of, but mainly spent her time hanging out with all of the children - and with their four and our five, there were plenty of children around. We didn't talk about their non-marriage, or her horrible rated R movies, or even her tattoos, so it was a good visit.

Ahhh, Maren

I adore this girl. I really do. She is beautiful, sweet, outgoing, graceful, and smart as heck.

Seven years ago today the Houston Medical Center was under water because of Tropical Storm Allison at the beginning of the month and now I was in labor. At about midnight on Saturday the 23rd, I called the doctor to figure out where I should go to have my baby. It was time. Geoff was so hoping that the baby would be delivered at the temporary triage center at the Astrodome - he really wanted to say his third child was born on the pitchers mound or home plate.....

Thankfully, to my relief, the doctor sent us to another hospital out of the flooded medical center that they had opened extra floors and wings. We found the hospital (that we didn't even know existed) and a few hours later, we had our first little girl. SEVEN years ago! It blows my mind to think that it has flown by so quickly.

Happy birthday, Maren. I love you more than words can say.

For certain birthdays, the kids get to have a friends party. This was a "friend party" birthday for Maren, so we had a swim party this past Saturday. (Geoff has the camera this week - blast you! - so I will post those pictures later).

So, to celebrate today (the actual birthday), we had a fun-filled day. We missed Eric and Geoff (who are at scout camp - sucks to be you...). There were only two things in the world that Maren wanted to do for her birthday. The first was to go bowling. So, we hauled out to the alley and had a good time (Except for Christian, who was strapped into his stroller the whole time because, come on...)











After bowling, we came home where Maren got to open her present from mom and dad.

Then, we and awesome neighbors went to do the second thing that Maren wanted to do for her birthday. Have dinner at a Mexican restaurant. She doesn't particularly love Mexican food,

but she loves the way they celebrate one's birthday!

(Christian, however, did not love it.)

We finished the great day with Wii at awesome neighbor's house. So fun. I love this girl.....



I'm so glad you're in our family, Maren. Happy 7th Birthday!

A touch of freedom

This is a catch-up post from the beginning of this month:

It is no secret that I think my baby is perfect and beautiful and adorable and I love him more than words can express. But I have to say that him being gone for the weekend was AWESOME!

Geoff took Christian to Virginia to visit his parents and sister. Can I just tell you how free I felt with only four children?! No naps to work around, no one needed special food or drink, and no one needed a diaper. Everyone could walk. We had a great time.

We swam (and I didn't have to keep my eyes on anyone continually), we went places at any given time of the day. Everyone was able to get in and out of the car by themselves. It was fun, fun, fun.

On Saturday, we went to the beach. There was no way I was taking a baby to the beach -- on a Saturday -- to crawl around in the dirty sand and eat seaweed (one of the lovely 'advantages' of the gulf at Galveston is that seaweek washes up like nothing else!).

There was a Sandcastle building contest, so we and awesome neighbors loaded up and headed out to the gulf. Growing up on Southern California beaches has totally ruined any appreciation I may have had for the beach at Galveston, so I just hate it. When people come to visit and ask to go to the beach and see the gulf, I say, okay, but it's gross and dirty and yucky. I took Clay there and when we left, I asked what he thought. He said: "Well, it was exactly like you described it!"





Anyway, I digress. It had been years since I had taken the kids to the beach. It is kind of like childbirth, wherein, after a year or two, you forget the pain and ugliness of it and are ready to do it again. So I was ready to go to the beach. It was yucky, gross and nasty, but way more tolerable than it would have been had we had a baby with us. The Sandcastles were pretty neat to see being built, and Logan got to fly a kite. We really did enjoy ourselves. It was packed with people, but I think with my new freedom, I was in a better state of mind to handle it.

In the end, Geoff and Christian returned on Sunday and at seeing the sweet little man, I have to say, although I didn't miss him while he was gone, I was very glad to have him back. (And Geoff too, but I'm just used to him being gone all the time...)

I think it's because we have a two-story house

Boy, the tooth fairy has had such a hard time getting to our place ever since we moved from the one-story house into the two-story. I know it's been, what, almost four years, but she just keeps getting later and later. I'm not accusing her of being lazy or anything, but I think she doesn't really like having to fly upstairs to make deposits.



When we first moved in here, some kid had lost a tooth and that dang thing stayed under his pillow for days. We kept making excuses about how the tooth fairy had to get used to finding our new house and all. Finally, she delivered, and everyone accepted the excuse about confusion with the move.


Nowdays, Maren is losing teeth like crazy and it is way hard for that fairy to keep up. Part of the problem, I think, is that some of the kids are going to bed later and the tooth fairy just can't stay awake that late. It's tough. Currently, Christian is running neck and neck with Maren in regards to the number of teeth in their respective.

There's some missing on the bottom too!

I don't remember the boys being this toothless all at once at any time. One of Maren's front teeth is finally growing in. It looks to me like it might be kind of crooked. We'll see. I blame all orthodontal problems on Geoff's genes. My teeth are straight having never touched a brace in their life! My genes just contribute to all other types and kinds of illness and diseases....mostly adult things that they will be on their own insurance coverage for.

Only in Texas

I love the south! We were headed out for a fun day at Kelly's house. Had to be gone so the people could clean the house. Pulled out of the garage only to find that one of the front tires of the van was flat as a pancake. So, I pumped up the tire (have a portable tire pump -- experience...) and drove slowly to Wal-Mart (my most favorite place in the world) to get the flat fixed.

Dylan at Wal-Mart said they would fix the tire and it would take about an hour and a half. So, we called awesome neighbor who made two shuttles because she only had the five seater car. In the meantime, we got happy meal breakfasts (only because they had good Kung Fu Panda toys that we haven't gotten yet) to wait for the shuttle. So, here's why I love the South:

We're waiting in Wal-Mart McDonald's when a man comes up and is cooing over Christian and says things like. "You're going to play for the NFL, aren't you?" "Such a happy boy, ain't ya?" Things like that. So, then as he's walking away, his parting words are: "I know why you're so happy, cause Hillary didn't get elected."

Amid my laughter, I said "Yes, sir!"

Been a long time...

It seems like forever since I've sat down to post. Twilight Camp has been kicking my rear! Camp is from 3 until 8 pm each day this week, and the staff (that's me) are at the camp from about 1:30 until 9 pm. Note the time however (and I've been home for a few hours!). I love Texas summer storms! Actually, camp is very fun and I am very happy to lend my time and (little) talent to it, but today it was 'scrubbed' as the camp director put it (he's a geeky NASA brain-guy).

So, I've been jotting down notes of things that I wanted to post about when I actually could get around to doing it. First, the end of another great school year.

Last week were Logan and Maren's awards ceremonies. They were awesome and got the highest awards one could get in elementary school. Maren was a shoe-in for the citizenship award in her class (she informed us frequently) because she never once, throughout the entire year, had to move her conduct clip from off of the color green. The one award that they didn't get was perfect attendance. That wasn't my fault, I would have had them there every day had it not been for the occasional vomiting and the like. I did take pictures at the awards ceremonies, but we can't find the usb cord for the camera, so those will have to be put on here another day.

There was a talent show a couple days before school ended (why do they cram all this stuff in at the end of the school year? February would be a good time for the talent show.) Maren auditioned and made it. She choreographed a ballet to the song Beauty and the Beast. (And by choreographed, I mean that it was different each and every time she did it.) I video taped it. At least I think I did, because Geoff said he had somehow locked the camera and couldn't get it to record. So I may have just been standing their holding a dead camera throughout her dance, but whatever. Anyway, there's no way I am going to figure out how to put that onto blogger, so just sing the song in your head as you picture an adorable ballerina spinning around a stage.... Maren was beautiful. I thought about it later that night and realized that it took a lot of great self esteem to get up in front of that many people and just go out and dance your little heart out. It was quite dramatic. I am very proud of her and hope that her strong personality and great self esteem will go with her the rest of her life! (Or at least until she has a couple children who beat all sense of self and self esteem out of her...)

Logan and Maren had their end-of-year parties on last Thursday. (Eric was out that day too, but in Junior High, you don't want your mom and her squeaky minivan filled with babies anywhere near you or your school!) I did the usual running between both classes, serving food, talking to teachers, bearing gifts, and avoiding eye contact with Nemesis Ruby -- Someday I'll get to that story, but it's long and I need to build up energy reserves to be able to 'revisit' the whole thing.
I intended to take pictures of Logan and Maren with their friends and teachers and such, but the camera somehow never made it out of my purse. It was in my purse, so that was an improvement!

Now it is officially summer! I have gotten, in my old age, to really like summer. It used to be that I hated having my people 24/7, and dreaded summer approaching, but now, I like being a bit more laid-back and slacking on the schedule. I like spending hours almost every day lazing by the pool. But, yeah, check back with me in mid-July and ask me again.....

I sure wish I had some pictures with this post. Too many words.