Throwback Thursday Halloween

I'm going to be busy with the Halloween festivities, so I thought I would post two of my old Halloween scrapbook pages. I vaguely remember when I still used to scrapbook. The first one is from 2003 (the kids were 8, 4, and 1) and the second from 2004 (ages 9, 5, and 2). I'll try to post these year's Halloween pics tomorrow. Happy Halloween!

First Band Concert

After being in band in middle school, high school, and then college, I never thought I would have a child also in band. Natalie decided last year that she wanted to be in band, playing percussion because she wanted to "hit things". Yes, that's my girly girl--not.

She finally had her first band concert on Monday night. They structured this band concert differently than what I've seen before. It was like having three band concerts in one night. The Concert Band performed first and the Honors Band was last. The Beginner Band, the one that Natalie is in, was in the middle. Parents could come to one performance and didn't have to stay for the other. That made this much more enjoyable for me.

The sixth graders in the Beginner Band all have different classes during the day, according to their instrument. That meant that they had not all played together until Monday night. They definitely sounded like a beginner band, but it was neat for me to see the excitement and nervousness in their facial expressions. That brought back memories for me.

Each section--flutes, oboes and bassons, etc. down to the percussion, which was last, all played separately. The flutes started out by playing a rhythm with just their mouthpieces, and then played a simple song using the whole instrument. Each section took their turn with the same procedure--a basic rhythm with their mouthpiece then a simple song. The percussion played on their drums then a simple song on the bells.

Of course the percussion players were standing in the back of the room the whole time, making it difficult for me to take pictures. I responded by standing near them, next to the wall. The band was placed on the cafeteria floor and not on stage (too big) so there was space for me to stand nearby. In the end, the band director asked each section to stand for pictures. I was ready to take a photo of Natalie and the other percussionists, but then he told them to all come up front for pictures. I managed to get this one. The rest of them had Natalie looking away every chance she got. All night long, every time she saw me with the camera trying to take a picture, she would look angry and turn her head or completely leave the room if she could.

Her friend Margot and her mom Nancy came to the concert with us and when I asked for a photo even before going into the building, Margot encouraged Natalie to stay still for a picture. The one I got probably caught Natalie mid-blink, but she totally looks like she is shooting daggers at me with her eyes. At least she has a neutral expression in this photo.

This concert was more of a "see what your child is learning in band" concert. The next one is in December and it's the Christmas concert. It'll be interesting to see the improvement in the kids' abilities. Maybe Natalie will let me take a picture next time.

Finished!

I don't have much time to post. Our kitchen and downstairs bathroom are finished! They were just leaving when I got home from picking up food after Eric's soccer practice tonight. I took some photos but I haven't had time to do anything with them and I definitely don't have time to do a whole blog post about them. I wanted to go ahead and post at least one picture.

Alex has such a great sense of humor. I was signing a school paper for Natalie on the new kitchen island countertop. Alex takes a picture of us and announces, "First Signing on the Counter". Natalie then proceeds to place the pencil that I had just used to sign her paper on the counter and announces, "First Pen on the Counter". In response, Alex plops some tortilla chips, Doritos and a container of cheese dip on the counter and announces "First Meal on the Counter!" He tries to take a selfie with his phone and attempts to include his sister who does NOT like to allow anyone to take pictures of her. While they were doing that I tried to take my own photo, but they both immediately hid their faces under the counter. In the end, Alex decided he would allow a photo because he wanted to eat and couldn't do that with his head under the counter. Also notice the foot sticking out from behind Alex. That is Natalie allowing a picture of her leg--just not her head.

I'll post more photos this week.

Halloween Party

Warning--photo-heavy post ahead! Our Halloween-loving friends had their annual Halloween party last night. Finally, Eric had a chance to wear his beloved Anakin Skywalker costume somewhere else besides our house. He likes to pose "with style".

Patrick and I thought about dressing in the same Star Wars theme, but there aren't that many Star Wars-themed adult costumes, especially for women. I considered Princess Leia briefly, but I didn't like the costume, so instead we went a completely different direction. We have costumes based on the Snow White and the Huntsman movie--not exciting but the costumes are nice.

Eric was thrilled at the elaborate decorations. This was a little table to the side of the food serving table. Eric pointed out the eyeballs and wanted to show them to me. They were probably edible, but I didn't want to ruin the decorations, so we left them alone. He did get to eat some gummy worm ice cubes, though.

The theme of the party was a haunted asylum, and this was the hospital ward area and was also next to the "morgue". Eric was fascinated by the monster baby in this "patient's" arms. It seems ironic that he has that big smile on his face.

Besides looking at all of the decorations, there were a couple of small children there when we got there, one of which was a small boy that was about a year to a year and a half old. He LOVED Eric's lightsaber, especially when it lit up and made noise. We all had to laugh at how his expression changed when he saw that the lightsaber could do that. Eric was so cute. He really seemed to enjoy sharing his lightsaber. He got down to the little boy's level and talked to him sweetly.

It seems that each year the decorations get more elaborate. You can tell that a lot of "love" went into these decorations. This is the operating room area next to the food serving table. There were also lots of decorations in different rooms and on the walls.

Natalie doesn't see her good friend Maya anymore. Both of them have gotten a bit taller in the last few months. Even though Natalie is only one month older than Maya, she is now in middle school (6th grade) whereas Maya is still in elementary school (5th grade) because of where their birthdays fall. We were talking with Maya's parents about how the two of them always pick up where they left off whenever they do see each other. Maya is as busy with taekwondo as Natalie is with swimming, so they don't get many opportunities to see each other.

Natalie didn't have a costume until about 5:30pm yesterday afternoon. She started looking through the costumes I have had in the past couple of years. She decided on the pirate costume and asked if I would braid her hair. I discovered that I can no longer look over her head when we are both standing, so I needed her to sit down so I could braid her hair. She was also eyeing the Snow White costume I was wearing and anticipating maybe using it next year. Scary. ;)

Kelly, Maya's mom, made sure to get photos of all of her guests this time, so we had the opportunity to get a family photo in front of some of her elaborate decorations. Alex didn't come with us, of course, because of his excuse that he didn't have a costume. Honestly, he used to be good friends with Maya's big brother Alejandro, but with different middle schools and now different high schools, they have grown apart.

I wasn't originally going to post this photo of Maya and her family here, but don't they look awesome? They already have a theme for next year's party. I'm sure it'll be another cool theme.

Weekend Swim Meet

This weekend we had our first 2-day swim meet of the season. This one was different in that we got a chance to sit with Natalie's friends and their families. This made it much more fun for her and for us, since we got to socialize in between events. The girls tended to gather in the chairs on their electronic devices, and the boys tended to gather on the ground on a blanket playing with Lego Mini-Figures.

On Saturday, Patrick missed Natalie's first race, the 100 yard Butterfly, because he was with Eric at Eric's first soccer game. Natalie's seed time was 1:24.95, and she swam it with a time of 1:23.94 (both are "B" times for 11-year-olds). She was upset when she got out of the water, and she sobbed in my arms. Then, she started not feeling well. She complained of a headache and stomachache. We tried giving her some ibuprofen and it helped a little.

Patrick was there for her next race, the 200 yard Freestyle. Her seed time was still from Long Course (2:54.19L), even though she last swam it in the Summer Splash Meet in August with a time of 2:43.43, maybe because the long course time is a "B" time for long course, but the short course time from the Summer Splash Meet is considered "Slower than B". She swam it in 2:37.26, which is a true "B" time for 11-year-olds. As per her usual, she wasn't happy with her performance, even though she had dropped time.

On Sunday, Patrick brought Eric to the meet since Alex had slept over at a friend's house on Saturday night. There were a lot of younger siblings there, and Eric played with them on the ground on a blanket that one of the moms had brought. I wanted to include this photo because of Eric smiling. I was playing with the focus on my new camera and as soon as he saw me he smiled. At least I have one child that is willing to be in a picture. Every time I tried to take a picture of Natalie, she covered her head in her towel. The only reason I was able to get the first photo above was because her friends wanted to be in a picture with her.

Natalie's first race on Sunday was the 100 yard Backstroke. She was in the same heat as her friends Renzi (Lane 2), Ally (Lane 6), and Aspen (Lane 7). Natalie was in Lane 5. In fact, they knew all the girls except for one. In the photo I show lanes 4 through 7. Her seed time was 1:19.32 and she swam it in 1:15.70, both are BB times for 11-year-olds. She was still upset, and she got more upset as she started not feeling well again. This time she didn't look well either.

Her next race was the 200 yard IM (seed time of 2:55.33). She seemed strong at first but really faded and finished with a time of 3:00.73 (both are B times). She was pretty unconsolable, but finally accepted some ibuprofen. She really didn't look good but she made herself swim the 100 yard Freestyle. Her coach was proud of her for giving it a try. Her seed time was 1:09.80 (B time and close to BB time of 1:08.29), but she swam it with a time of 1:14.26 (slower than B time, which is 1:13.59). We left as soon as she cooled down so she could get some rest and so she could feel better. We didn't allow her to go to her friend Margot's house. She needed to get some rest. She said later that maybe it was because she was nervous because she feels somewhat similar before a big test. We discussed how this is why we sign her up for so many meets, so she'll get used to competing and not get so nervous.

Interestingly, Natalie was in her first big meet this same weekend last year. This was all new then, but it's "old hat" now. Even then, she still has the same high standards for herself, but now she usually handles competing better than her Mama does. Natalie just keeps getting better and better, and we couldn't be more proud of her.

First Soccer Game

Eric wanted to play soccer again this year, but Patrick didn't want to have to coach him again. He called around to a couple of the club teams, and we settled on SA United, the club that Anthony played for in his junior year. The practice time was more convenient--on Tuesdays from 5-6pm at the STAR fields. They had already started practicing by the time we signed Eric up, but they welcomed him.

His first practice was this past Tuesday, and the first game was today. It was a good thing Eric was there. The game was set up as a 4 vs. 4 game and Eric's team only had four players show up--including Eric. I missed the game because I was with Natalie at her swim meet. I was so happy that Patrick took a few pictures. He'll be "guest blogging" below.

Eric had a blast at his first practice on Tuesday evening, but there was a different coach for him for the game today. Any concerns were quickly alleviated. This coach is fantastic, he is great with the kids, encouraging them to do "bunny hops" or "do the wave" while they set up balls for goal kicks, or when there were other things going on. Several of the kids on the field were very good players but Eric did a great job holding his own and got a lot of "touches" on the ball and narrowly missed several goals. The coach went out of his way to keep all of the kids involved and playing, and always cheered on both teams. The coach for the other team did the same.

All of the children on both teams were laughing and having a great time. This is always a goal for us. We weren't ready to start soccer practices in August when CYO was starting and then we needed to get schedules down to find a good fit. I am thrilled that this seems like the perfect place for Eric to play soccer right now. Practices are small and the kids get a lot of individual attention, and the games are small-sided 4v4 games designed specifically to allow all of the children to be involved.

It was a bit cold this morning so we had fewer children than expected, but I am sure the other teammates will have just as much fun next week.

First Piano Lesson

Eric has always been musical. He loves to sing and dance to songs on the radio or to the songs his older siblings play for him. He always cracks me up when, even in the middle of a store at the mall or at a restaurant, he'll break out into a strange dance when he hears music. We wanted to take advantage of this love of music by getting him piano lessons. We finally got him signed up for piano lessons last week, and he had his first lesson yesterday.

Justin was Natalie's teacher, not her first piano teacher, but the one that took over when her first piano teacher moved away. He is now Eric's teacher. The first lesson was a basic one. They talked about how Eric should sit and how he should hold his hands when he plays the piano. They talked about numbering the fingers 1-5 and playing some very simple songs.

Natalie was a little older by the time she had Justin for a teacher, so she wasn't so playful at that time like Eric is now. Eric really seemed to really enjoy his lesson. Justin was so good with him and he was smiling constantly. Justin would ask Eric what dinosaur a certain song or certain piano keys sounded like. For the lowest notes, Eric said "T-Rex". For the highest notes, Eric said, "Compsognathus". Yesterday, the song sounded like an "Ornithomimus". Justin just smiled and said, "Wow", and tried to repeat whatever dinosaur name comes out of Eric's mouth.

We are using the Primer Level Lesson Book that Natalie used, but we got Eric a new theory book and performance book. I had Eric write his name in the books. I think Natalie was around the same age or even younger when she used this book. Her writing was so much neater than his, and I loved having both of their names in this book. I've never been happy with the way they teach them how to write with sort of hybrid printing/cursive letters because it's just not as neat. That's another topic for another blog post.

I helped Eric practice piano this afternoon. Thankfully, it's only some very short exercises and he was very eager to play. Let's hope this excitement lasts for a while!

Visit to the Children's Museum of Houston

Natalie, Eric, and I made a short trip to Houston this past weekend. We had not seen my parents since June plus this was going to be the last free weekend for a while.

We used to be members of the Children's Museum of Houston when we lived there. Anthony even used to take some of the classes they offered for kids and we have many fond memories from our visits there. It's been years since we've gone and I wanted Eric to experience what a great place this is/was.

The first picture is a display of "nano-size" magnetic particles and how they behave differently from larger particles. Eric and I both thought it was pretty cool how the particles looked "like the sun" when they were near a magnet.

They also had this big funnel that the kids could throw a ball into. The ball would spiral down into the hole at the bottom, going faster as it got to the bottom. Eric made an interesting comment. He's been learning about the planets in school, and he said that this was like planets going into a black hole. I thought at that point, "Eric is going to be a science geek." That's not too much of a stretch, considering his father and older siblings, but still, it was interesting to see him so excited about science.

I took the second picture in the puzzle area. They had different puzzles, from trying to build a bridge using only wooden planks to a matching game to this life-size puzzle where you had to fit the pieces together to form a cube. As you can see, we didn't solve it. I would have tried some more but he seemed content to sit on it and he wanted a picture, so I took one.

They had the museum decorated for Halloween. In fact, they had some sort of Trick or Treat activity where they had stations throughout the museum where people were giving out candy. I didn't choose to look into that at all since just being at my Mom's house meant that the Eric was getting plenty of treats.

They had this big poster with a mummy-looking creature on it. They had some small mummy-wrapped figures nearby also. I asked Eric to stand in front of the poster for a picture. He decided to stand on one leg and look like a monster. He was having a blast!

Near the poster they had a station where you could fold a piece of paper (the blue paper that he is holding). There was a shaft in the middle of the table where air was being blown upward. You could put your folded piece of paper on top of the air shaft and the paper would go flying up and around--very cool. I took a video that I can't seem to post here on the blog. There was another station where you could build a structure out of blocks then you could turn on the wind storm to try to blow it down and/or you could crank the handle to create an earthquake to knock it down.

Here is Eric again posing for the camera next to another Halloween-themed display. There were a ton of kids there, as I'm sure there are on most Saturdays. We were still able to play with the things we wanted to play with, although I texted Patrick with a comment about how I remembered the one thing I hated about the Children's Museum--kids who were unsupervised, even if their parents were standing right next to them. When I was building a bridge out of the wooden planks over a "river", a girl came up and started taking the extra pieces and throwing them all into the river. I didn't feel like I needed to be the one to tell her not to do that with her father standing right next to her looking at what she was doing. Eventually of course she knocked down my bridge and at that point I didn't think it was worth it for me to continue building. Her father didn't say a word or made any motion toward her. Sigh.

There was a new area that wasn't there a few years ago during our last visit. It was a play area with different active things for the kids to do. Eric's favorite activity was this big play structure made out of circular platforms placed at odd angles to each other with all of them encased in netting. The whole thing was three stories tall. It was sometimes tough for me to be able to see him despite going up and down the stairs. He stopped to look for me a few times, smiling and waving, and posing for a picture.

There were lots of other things we saw and did. In all we spent about three hours there. Natalie stayed at my parents' house with her cousins. They were watching something on Emily's iPad when I left. They would have had fun if they had gone along, but frankly, I only had energy for one and I was happy that I could devote all my attention to my sweet little man.

Finally...Some Work Is Done

I haven't been posting update photos of our kitchen remodel because there hasn't been anything going on. They really only worked a couple of days last week. They did some more stuff to the shower area to convert it from the bathtub and they completely took apart the kitchen island. I want some drawers instead of cabinets in the kitchen island to help me organize my bakeware and other pots and pans more easily. I also wanted it all one level instead of having the raised bar area, to give me as much counter space as possible.

Notice the dryer in the breakfast area. That means we're on week three of not having a washer and dryer--definitely more inconvenient than not having a kitchen. I had planned on not having the kitchen but I hadn't anticipated the lack of a washer and dryer.

On Friday of last week (Oct. 4), the painters came. They were supposed to show up in the morning, but they didn't show up until around 1pm. Then, the paint they had wasn't covering the old paint, even after three coats. Notice the paint colors on the side at the bottom of this window. That's the old paint color--a dark blue red. The new paint is a brighter and slightly more orange red. The painters came back this week, but not until Wednesday. No one came on Monday or Tuesday.

They painted the kitchen and the laundry room. The laundry room is the same golden color as the bathroom will be. They haven't painted the bathroom yet. All they did in there was take off the light fixture above the bathroom mirror and apply texture to the wall.

I took this picture today. After working yesterday and today, they pretty much finished the tile in the kitchen and laundry room. The laundry room has only the plain big tiles and not the smaller charcoal tiles that are in the kitchen. They still have to add the grout and do the tile work in the bathroom. I'm just happy to be able to see some work actually getting done.

The family seems to be holding up okay. I'm worried that I'll gain a bunch of weight from all of this eating out and I'm looking forward to visiting my mom this weekend and getting some of her delicious home-cooked food. The kids enjoy eating out, so they haven't really complained about that.

Eric here is trying to weave his big car in between the furniture in our tiny living room. I'm also testing out my new camera. I finally figured out how to change the settings on it and how to get the pictures off the camera and into the computer. Eric will be busy starting next week (and so will we). He will be starting both soccer (with practices on Tuesdays with games on Saturdays) and piano lessons (on Thursdays). Our weekends will be busy again. We've been planning on soccer and piano for Eric since school began and we finally signed him up. It's ironic that when this kitchen remodel is finally finished, we'll be busy and won't even get to spend much time in it.

Art a la Carte

A number of years ago, I think around the time Anthony was in first or second grade, they did away with art class at our nearby elementary school--budget cuts. Some time since then, the PTA bought a program called "Art a la Carte" and relied on parent volunteers to "teach" art in school. I helped in one of these classes a few years ago for Natalie's class. The other mom was the one who figured out the lesson and I helped her set up and teach the class. It wasn't any real instruction besides showing them how to put together an art project.

This year, the PTA was able to pay for a part-time art teacher. Each class has art once a month, usually on a Wednesday. The art teacher said she sometimes comes in on Friday also to mount some of the artwork. Parents hang the artwork in the hallways. It looks very cool to see all the different art projects from each class as you walk in the school hallways.

I missed Eric's first Art a la Carte class this year. By the time I found out the schedule, I couldn't switch my days off. I was able to get yesterday off, so I volunteered for the art class. This time was so different from the first time. The art teacher had a really great way of explaining to the first graders how to draw pumpkins. She had them draw circles around their spread-out hands. For the taller, skinnier pumpkin, she had them close their hand and draw around that. Some of it seemed a little beyond what some of the kids seemed to be able to understand, but some kids were definitely able to understand and follow along. For example, she was using oil pastels and she showed how you could start with a lighter color then when you layer a darker color on top of the lighter one, you could blend the darker color and make it lighter. Some kids really got that and drew the lighter color first then the darker color. Honestly, I was a little surprised that even some of the boys followed along. Eric just colored all over, using what colors he liked, not really trying to layer any colors or anything. The art teacher even taught them a little about Art History and how Cezanne drew still life using apples.

When it came time to color in the "sky" or "ground", or even the pumpkins, Eric showed that he didn't care about coloring in the lines or trying to cover up the background paper with color. It was a little hard for someone like me who likes to stay in the lines, but I let him have fun with it. She was trying to get the kids to put down a pretty solid block of color from the oil pastel crayons. Eric wasn't interested. Some of the moms tried to color in some of the backgrounds. I let go and let him color the way he wanted to color. He really enjoyed the art lesson, and he seemed to really enjoy that I was there. In the end, his picture turned out better than I originally thought it would. The pumpkins sort of looked like pumpkins, even. Great job, Eric!

Happy 18th Birthday, Anthony!

For the second year in a row, Anthony was away from home on his birthday. I told him last year, when he was on a school field trip to Texas Tech, that he was breaking me in for this year. I made him a video of Eric and Natalie singing "Happy Birthday" to him last year, so I had to do it again this year. It's a pretty cute and I wish I could share it here, but I can't seem to upload it to this blog, so those of you that are on Facebook, go to my wall and the video is there.

Alex and Patrick stayed up until 11pm Central Time (our time) so they could be the first to send Anthony their birthday greetings to him. That is the same as midnight Easter Time (Anthony's time). I think Patrick beat Alex by a second, mostly because Alex was sending the video I made to Anthony and that took a little longer. I thought it was sweet that Alex wanted to stay up just so he could greet Anthony "Happy Birthday".

I was surprised when I got a text from Anthony last night with this picture in it and with the caption "Buffalo steak from Boynton Restaurant"--no other details. I had to ask him questions. I asked, "Are you out with friends?" He replied, "No, I'm sitting in a restaurant alone in the corner crying softly to myself." What a goofball!

Next, he sent this picture and said that the table in back of him was also with him and that the person who took the picture left one person out. They all walked to this nearby restaurant. The weather was great for walking but apparently "slightly chilly" when they walked back. Of course that was because my little 18-year-old goofball didn't bring a jacket. He'll be wearing a jacket and some soon enough.

I was really happy to get these pictures. These two are a whole lot more than I got last year from him--nothing. Even though we couldn't be with him, at least he shared a piece of his birthday with us. Next year, maybe he'll get someone to record his friends singing "Happy Birthday" to him and send that to me. I can only dream.

First Meet of the Season

Natalie had her first swim meet of the short course season today. She hasn't been in a meet in two months--that's the longest period of time she hasn't competed in a meet since she started competitive swimming last October. The time standards go down as the kids get older, so Natalie didn't have qualifying times in the 50 and 100 yard breaststroke events since turning 11 two months ago. Her coach also put her in the 200 IM where she does have a "B" standard time, probably because the 200 IM was "open" event that anyone could enter. We feel like it's more worth our time to go to a meet when she swims in at least three events anyway. Below are her times for today:

100 yard Breaststroke--Seed time= 1:46.01; Time today= 1:40.49

50 yard Breaststroke--Seed time= 47.19; Time today= 45.69

200 yard IM--Seed time= 2:55.33; Time today= 2:53.76

They've been practicing basic skills at swim practice since they started back up in September (one month ago), so they really haven't been doing anything besides freestyle and maybe a little backstroke. When she swam her first event, the 100 yard breaststroke, I asked Patrick how she looked since he's the expert in our family. He replied, "She looks like they haven't been working on the breaststroke." Apparently, among other things, she was diving too deep with each stroke instead of going forward. Honestly, we had no expectations for this meet. We just wanted her to swim in a meet again for the experience. Because of that, of course we were still pleased that she dropped time in all of her events. She understood that, but she still has higher standards for herself than we do. She wanted "B" times in the breaststroke and so naturally she was a little disappointed.

Natalie's best friend Margot came to this meet. That was super nice of Margot, since she has no personal interest in swimming. I went early for warmup with Natalie, and Patrick brought Margot when he came with Eric just before Natalie's first race. Having Margot there really helped Natalie relax and have a little fun. The rest of her swimming friends were either at another meet or not at a meet at all.

I hope to have more pictures to post here after I figure out how to get pictures off my new camera.

CSI: The Experience

We went to the new exhibit at the Witte Museum today, called CSI: The Experience. Here's the description from the museum website:

"Can YOU crack the case?

You’ve seen the award-winning television drama. Now it’s your turn to crack the case!

Created in cooperation with the hit CBS franchise, "Crime Scene Investigation," this exhibition lets you step into the world of cutting-edge forensic science and investigative techniques. Examine the evidence then solve the crime!

Imagine entering a crime scene and being the one responsible for noticing and collecting every trace of evidence. The pressure is on: you know the analysis of your evidence must be scientifically sound to crack the case. From DNA and firearms analysis to forensic anthropology and toxicology, visitors will be immersed in hands-on science in an exciting multi-media environment with dazzling special effects direct from the CSI TV series.

-Examine "crime" scenes to identify and record evidence

-Enter the "laboratories" to conduct scientific testing

-Visit the "autopsy" rooms for pathology analysis

-Report to the "office" to build a case, based on the scientific evidence"

Doesn't that sound cool? The first photo is of Eric looking through a microscope during one of the "members only activities" only available during the opening weekend, which is this weekend. He is looking at some fibers "from the crime scene" to see if it matches some sample pieces of cloth. There was also a fingerprinting section but he didn't seem that interested in that.

The exhibit itself had three separate "crime scenes" and you follow the cases through from the evidence gathering to the analysis and then conclusions. We picked Crime Scene #3 only because the sign was in the color red. I'll give you one guess as to which child picked that color. Eric seemed very interested. They had computer stations that were interactive and he wanted me to read everything. We'll have to go back when it isn't so crowded, so we can do one of the other crime scenes.

Natalie brought her friend Margot and they looked like they had fun, but they seemed indifferent, for the most part. They did each station then rushed off to play in the HEB Treehouse that is a permanent exhibit at the museum. We discovered them making this structure out of wooden blocks. Natalie only posed for a picture because Margot wanted a picture taken. Eric is always good for the camera.

Eric also played on this big grid on the floor that had flashing lights on it. There were games you could play like "dodgeball" where you had to avoid stepping on the colored lights. He enjoyed that for a while with three other boys. He also played on one of the computers where you could learn how to dig up dinosaur fossils. The last thing he wanted to do was the rock climbing wall.

He had to put on this safety harness so he could get strapped onto the rope. He cracks me up sometimes--in this picture he is waiting for his turn. I asked him to step forward so I could get the climbing wall in the background for a picture. For some reason, he decided to look at me over his shoulder instead of just turning around. I took a video of him actually climbing. He got up about 10 feet or so before deciding that was high enough. He didn't look scared or anything, he just seemed like he didn't want to try anymore. He got to go up twice and then he was done and ready to go.

We picked up some Sonic for lunch then headed home. Patrick and I are getting really tired of eating out. I feel like I'm gaining a lot of weight. I haven't been updating the blog with pictures of the kitchen because pretty much nothing happened this week. I'll describe more in an update in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, Natalie's first swim meet of the season is tomorrow. I'll have pictures on the blog in a day or two.

Tacky Thursday

For those of you that are tired of seeing pictures of my demolished kitchen and bathroom, I have a treat for you today. Last week Thursday, Alex said it was "Tacky Thursday" at school. On the way home from school on Wednesday, he looked up the definition of "tacky" so he could pick out the perfect outfit. I had to laugh at how he is still very OCD in his own way, even though he gives this front of being laid back and not caring. Here's the definition:

tack·y [tak-ee]
adjective, tack·i·er, tack·i·est.
1. not tasteful or fashionable; dowdy.
2. shabby in appearance; shoddy: a tacky, jerry-built housing development.
3. crass; cheaply vulgar; tasteless; crude.
4. gaudy; flashy; showy.

The above photo is what he had laid out on his messy bed the night before. He even told me that I could take a picture. He's my only child that thinks about what he is wearing the night before and lays it out.

The next day was the Athletics Sausage Supper, so I saw him with all of that stuff on while at school. This picture doesn't do him justice, of course, since you can't see his bottom half. He is wearing the three pairs of athletic shorts you see in the top picture, the orange one at about waist-high then the red one a little lower and finally the black one pretty much under his butt. He is wearing mis-matched socks and Crocs on his feet. Apparently, earlier in the day, he was wearing Natalie's old purple tulle tutu that she maybe wore once when she was about six years old. That would have been a sight--he wore it on top of his head. The balloon hat is from his Aunt Linda who lives in Albuquerque and sent us that hat several years ago. Most people apparently agreed that he did indeed get the "tacky" part right.

In other news, Patrick went to the laundromat today to do our laundry for the past week when we haven't had a washer and dryer. Some of our neighbors offered their washer and dryers, but he didn't want to impose plus he could get more done more quickly with the large industrial machines at the laundromat. He texted me saying that for the past week, Natalie only had one shirt in the laundry and several pairs of socks--no underwear. We shuddered to think where she could have put her dirty underwear.

Patrick glanced quickly in her room and didn't see clothes on the floor. We've been yelling at her lately because she constantly has clothes on her floor, both clean and dirty clothes. Well, when I got home, she was hand-washing her uniforms and other clothes in our bathroom. Patrick made her hand-wash them. The worst part? She put the dirty clothes under the bedspread on the bottom bunk in her bedroom, which is why Patrick didn't see them. Sigh. He keeps saying that I might find one day that she is missing since we have four children and we can spare one child anyway.

Tearing Out

For most of the week, the workers have been tearing stuff out. I took this photo after the first day (Monday) when they moved the refrigerator out of the kitchen and into the formal dining room. They removed the kitchen sink and placed the old one in the spot where the refrigerator used to be. I'm not sure why they kept the old sink as we are getting a new stainless steel one, but there it is. They also removed all the countertops. That was done on the second day, which turned out to be on Wednesday. For some reason they skipped Tuesday, without telling us they were skipping Tuesday. We had expected better communication, but at least they showed up and did their job the rest of the week.

There was wallpaper in the laundry room and the bathroom. They removed all of that and they removed all of the flooring. That took a couple of days, between removing the flooring and removing all of the adhesive underneath the flooring. They spent some time redoing the connections to the washer, because it had been stripped and might not fit well when they put the washer back. Unfortunately, because they removed the washer and dryer so they could work in the laundry room, that means that we are also currently without a washer and dryer. The laundry is piling up!

This is another view of the whole kitchen with all of the countertops removed. Apparently they add the granite countertops last, because of the possibility of dropping a tool or something on the granite and causing damage. We have three large slabs of granite on hold for us that match each other. It would not be ideal if they needed more than that.

The most dramatic change has been in the bathroom, where they removed the whole bathtub and the tile on the walls surrounding the bathtub. We decided to go with a shower only in there instead of the bathtub and shower, so they will tile the floor as well as the shower in the bathroom. By Friday, they finished the half wall of the shower and they moved the location of the shower head. They raised it and re-centered it. I can't wait to see the progress on this shower because, honestly, it looks scary to see it like this, with the inside of the walls all exposed.

This is a view of the bathroom countertop that was removed and the medicine cabinet that was also removed.

Patrick has been the one communicating with the contractors, since he is the one that is at home during the day. On Friday, they finished applying the wall texture on the walls that had wallpaper. They also finished up some plumbing in the laundry room and bathroom. This coming week, the plan is to do all the painting and then install the tile. We're not sure if they will be able to do all of that in one week. The contractor told us that he expected the work to be done in three weeks, but he was going to tell us four just in case. The third week will probably include the changes to the kitchen island and adding the granite countertops. We're crossing our fingers that it will be closer to three weeks than four!

Our New Norm

Our remodelers arrived on Monday morning (Sept. 23rd). The first thing they did was put up plastic sheeting to separate the kitchen/breakfast room/bathroom from the rest of the house. That meant that we could no longer enter our house through the garage. Although we parked in the garage that night, we had to come in through the front or back door. The workers came in through the garage or the back door to the garage to get to the kitchen. It was kind of eerie to see the plastic move back and forth depending on when the air conditioning was blowing or not.

On Tuesday morning after all of this was put up, I had to walk out through the back door that you can see in this first picture, and into the back door of the garage. Of course the sprinkler system is set to turn on Tuesday mornings, so my shorts got a little wet. It was dark and I used the flashlight on my iPhone to walk across the yard. I also had trouble unlocking the back door of the garage, since we usually just keep it locked and don't bother unlocking it. We realized after this that we should just keep one of the garage remote controls in the entryway, so we can just go out through the front door and into the garage.

Our refrigerator and all of its magnets was moved to the formal dining room and the dining room table was moved to the side. We put some supplies on that table, as well as laundry baskets to contain the laundry, since we couldn't use the washer and dryer, either. Patrick also put the drawer of eating utensils on that table, but we didn't have a good way of washing those regularly, so we started using plastic utensils. We also started using paper plates and cups.

Our breakfast table was now sharing the living room with the sofa and TV. We put some paper supplies on that table, as well as the bread stuff and peanut butter. On the opposite side of the room is the fireplace, where we put the convection oven and toaster. We put the cereal and snacks on a chair. I now put my purse and bag that I take to work on one of the reclining chairs. We've been eating out, mostly, but last night I heated up some frozen mini-burritos for Alex and me in the convection oven. I thought about bringing home my microwave oven that I have at work, temporarily, but decided that wasn't worth the hassle. When the workers leave each day, we could enter the kitchen through the garage and use the microwave, if we wanted to, but so far we haven't done that. The hardest part for me is the extra clutter in these rooms. The hardest thing for the rest of the family is having to run upstairs when they need to wash their hands or go to the bathroom.

This is our new norm for the next few weeks.

Before the Kitchen Remodeling

Warning--this is a very photo-heavy post. We are starting our kitchen remodel this week. I took these photos on Sunday before the work was scheduled to begin on Monday, September 23rd. I'll try to share photos of the progress as it occurs.

This first photo is of the refrigerator and countertop next to it. We're getting a new refrigerator. This one is almost 16 years old. We bought it when we bought our first house. Eric has covered it in alphabet and dinosaur magnets. We also have our invitations on it as well as magnets from a few places we've visited. The new refrigerator is stainless steel and magnets will not adhere to it.

The countertop next to the refrigerator used to hold mail when it comes in, which means mostly junk mail. This is the cleanest it has ever been. We gets lots and lots of junk mail, and I usually don't have time to go through it all on a regular basis. Why don't I just throw it away? I don't just throw it away because I accidentally threw away a check from Patrick's publisher once. I also want to be able to recycle the paper and Patrick doesn't want our address still on the envelope. I'm still not sure why...

This second picture is, of course, our kitchen sink, with the plant that has stayed alive the longest of any plant we've ever had. This one is older than Eric. We're replacing the sink with a stainless steel one with a stainless steel faucet that is bigger on one side instead of 50/50 like this one. Our remodeler told us about a type of kitchen faucet that you can turn off and on just by touching it, which sounded super cool, but practical too. The spray thing also hasn't worked in years, so it'll be great to have one that works.

This is our kitchen island. Our kitchen isn't very big and I've always lamented the lack of counter space. We're replacing this whole island. I wanted sliding drawers to better organize the baking stuff and other things that are stored in this island. In order to do that they are building us a new one because putting sliding drawers inside these cabinets as they are now would really cut down on our storage space. Hopefully drawers will be better.

They are also expanding the counter top and making it one level, so it will be like one big table. That will enlarge the counter space and hopefully keep us from storing stuff on top of part of it, like we do now on the bar area.

The cooktop and vent hood will also be replaced. We have an electric cooktop and we're getting one just like it. We had wanted a gas cooktop, but we weren't able to find a gas house with a gas cooktop when we were looking for houses 11 1/2 years ago. The countertops are all laminate now but we will be putting in granite countertops. I'm excited about how pretty that will look.

Notice the cabinets under the cooktop versus the cabinets right next to them on the right. Because of the way the cabinets are made, with the doors that meet, we are going to get sliding drawers inside those cabinets to the right. I had sliding drawers in the cabinets at our last house and I loved them.

We're also adding a tile backsplash because right now the wall sometimes gets wet near the sink and the paint is peeling--not attractive at all. The backsplash will be a lighter color similar to the tile that will be on the floor and will hopefully lighten up the kitchen a little, to make up for the dark granite countertops. I picked out some tile I really like and I hope it looks like the picture I have in my head.

This the downstairs bathroom adjacent to the kitchen. We are also putting the same dark granite countertop in here and replacing the sink. The fixtures here will be more of an "oiled bronze" color. The original owners of the house put in wood floors in this bathroom and we're replacing all of that with a tile floor just like in the kitchen. I love the look of the hardwood flooring, but it's just not practical next to the bathtub, especially with my children not being careful not to splash water out of the tub when they get out.

We're also getting rid of the dark wallpaper and painting the walls a gold color. This will be Alex's bathroom when the remodeling is complete, and the adjacent bedroom will be his as well. This used to be Anthony's room, except when we had overnight guests, and then this would become the guest bathroom and bedroom. It's time that Alex had his own room and not have to share with his six-year-old brother.

This is the tub and shower in that same bathroom. We'll be taking out the bathtub and putting in just a shower. Alex will only take showers and not baths anyway, plus when my parents visit, my dad will be able to get in and out of the shower more easily. The tile will match the tile in the kitchen. The fixtures here will match the ones in the sink area. Again, I hope it turns out like the picture in my head.

This is the butler's pantry just off the kitchen. We're putting in the granite countertop here too. These cabinets are mostly storage for those items we don't use often, like our formal glassware. Patrick also puts his liquor here. He thought about incorporating a wine refrigerator in this area, but for now that is a separate appliance that is in the formal dining room.

Directly across from the butler's pantry is the laundry room. We're finally getting rid of this icky flowery wallpaper. I am not a flowery person. The tile on the floor will also match the tile in the kitchen and bathroom.

That concludes the tour of our kitchen before they tear it all up this week. My big DSLR camera stopped working, so all of these photos were taken with my iPhone. I'll post some photos of our torn-up kitchen and bathroom later this week.