Halloween 2014

Natalie was undecided on what costume to wear for Halloween this year. She had always planned on putting something together or using one of my old costumes. She was undecided as of about 5pm today. Then, after dinner, I saw her with a rolled up piece of white paper, and then the next thing I knew, she had taped it onto her headband for a made-up unicorn costume.

The plan was to drop her off at her friend Margot's house before 6pm so she could go trick or treating with a group of friends. The next time I saw her was back at home when Eric had enough and wanted to start eating his candy. That was just before 8pm. Natalie and her friends had been resting back at our house. She had already gotten a good three times the amount of candy that Eric had gotten, and she went out again to get more. She came back by her self probably a half hour or so later.

Eric's costume was more planned out. We purchased a premade costume of Star Lord from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy this past summer. We bought the Nerf gun separately. We've had this costume for over a month now, and we just folded the pants part today--Patrick actually did it. :)

We went trick or treating with my friend Alicia and her daughter Sofia, as well as a friend of hers and her daughter. We left at around 6:30pm and went a different direction in the neighborhood as we have in previous years. The girls seemed to have more energy than Eric. They wanted to run to every house, and their moms held them back. Eric was always trailing behind them a few steps. I knew he was getting tired because when Sofia's necklace broke and her mom was fixing it, he sat down on the sidewalk to wait. He seemed to be trailing farther and farther back, so I finally asked him if he wanted to go home and eat his candy. I was relieved when he said "yes". I wasn't looking at the time, so I was surprised that it was already almost 8pm when we got home.

I gave him a bath then he was allowed to eat candy. I told him to put his wrappers on a paper plate so I could keep track of how much he had eaten.

This is a picture of him with all the candy he had collected. He only ended up eating small packages of Lifesaver Gummies, Mike and Ike fruit flavored candies, Skittles Wild Berry, and Pop Drops (most of that package was still intact when he decided he had enough). He spent time looking at the Target Toy Book that just arrived today, so he was a little distracted.

Alex got dropped off at his friend Malayah's house so he could go to her church Trunk or Treat, and then he was going back to his friend Dylan's house to spend the night. He was in a rush to leave, so I didn't get a photo of him in his costume. I pleaded with him to get someone to take a photo of him for me, but it didn't sound like that was high on his agenda. I just hope he stays safe tonight. There are some crazies out there.

Our culdesac put up a table at the entrance again, so we could all put our candy bowls out and the kids could get their own candy while the adults spent time together instead of staying in their own houses separately. It's a more low key celebration than in years' past when we used to have a pot luck out there too, but it's still nice to meet the neighbors even if it's only once a year.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Fall Band Concert

I haven't been blogging too much because not much has been happening. I barely take any pictures as it is. One thing is for sure, Natalie not swimming has freed up our schedule. She has not been in the swimming pool since the Fall Time Trials Meet almost two weeks ago due to ongoing back pain. She has her first physical therapy appointment in three weeks on Friday, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the appointment will somehow help her back get better.

Natalie has been keeping busy with other activities, Honors Band being one of them. She has sectionals with the rest of the percussion section every Thursday morning at 7 am. We saw the end result of her hard work this past Monday during her Fall Band Concert.

This is Alex leaning on Eric before the concert. The Honors Band performed last, which was good in a way, because that meant that there were less people in the parking lot. The Concert and Beginners Bands and their supporters were long gone by then. The down side was that the Honors Band didn't perform until 7:30pm. We would have left Eric home with Alex, but Alex wanted to go to the concert. When I told him that it was nice that he was supporting his sister, he said that he wasn't supporting his sister since she didn't care whether or not he came. While he's right about that, I still think he was supporting his sister.

Eric would have been playing on the iPad the whole time (with the volume on silent mode), but he had played on the iPad after school and ran the battery way down to 16%, so he brought a Captain Underpants book instead. He's usually pretty good about staying quiet and still anyway.

Natalie didn't want any pictures of herself tonight. She complained bitterly about her tuxedo shirt before the concert. Patrick jokingly said that she probably would decide not to be in band next year just because of the uniform shirt. During the band's America the Beautiful song, she played a solo on the tympani to begin the piece, so I made Patrick take a video. She wasn't happy and wanted us to delete the video, but we didn't delete it, of course. At the end of the concert, the percussionists walk up to the front of the band so that their parents can get photos if they'd like, since the percussionists are always in the back of the band and aren't visible. Natalie especially, because of her size, is usually hidden behind a music stand. This is as good a picture as I could get, because of course, even though she walked to the front, she did not stop walking and walked on by. Even a few of the boys stopped so their parents could take pictures, but not my Natalie.

After the performance, she took a while to be ready to go because she was helping put away all of the percussion equipment, so we waited an chatted with one of her friend's parents. She was happy to go home and take off that uniform. Her shoes also hurt her feet, and especially since she was standing the whole time, her back wasn't going well afterwards either.

This Saturday, there is a special swim clinic with the former University of Texas swim coach, and Natalie is already signed up. I just hope that her back gets better soon. Patrick and I feel so helpless, and really, so does she.

October Art a la Carte

Eric's first art class for the year was today. The October schedule was already out, so I'm glad I was able to easily switch my day off so I could be there today. This year his art class is from 12:25pm-1:30pm, but his lunch is still at 11:05-11:35am, so there is an hour gap in between.

Last year he would say goodbye to me after he finished his lunch, and I would see him a few minutes later in his art class. Today I said goodbye to him after he ate his lunch very quickly, then I went home to have lunch, then I went back to his school for the art class. His lunch was still the same as last year's lunch, however, 10 spicy chicken nuggets and a small vanilla Frosty from Wendy's.

Today's lesson was about abstract vs. realistic art. The inspiration piece was Kandinsky's "Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles" from 1913. They used pastels as their art medium. Some of the kids had trouble choosing what colors to use. The teacher's only suggestions were that they only use small amounts of black and that they should use at least three colors for each square piece.

Many of the other kids colored in their circles more fully with less white from the background showing. That took a while for some of them, because of all of the elbow grease they put into their coloring the circles and background until none of the white was showing. Eric did not have any of those hangups. He colored like he usually colors, not really trying to stay in the lines and not covering up all the white of the paper.

He was definite when he finished. Despite encouragement from the teachers and the other volunteer to color in the white, he didn't feel like he needed to do that at all. I knew from last year that he wants to do his own thing and I won't change his mind--nor do I want to change his mind. The beauty of seeing him in action in his art class is that I can encourage his creativeness. It's not my art project, after all--it's his, and I'm totally fine with that.

Fall Time Trials Meet

In response to complaints that we don't have enough swim meets for our kids to swim in, especially the "unclassified" ones where they can swim races that they don't have times for already, our swim club hosted a "Time Trials Meet". This was meant to be a shorter meet with the longer distances, the 200 yard backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke, and the 500 yard freestyle. Natalie has not swum in any of those races in a competition yet.

She didn't feel ready to swim the 500 yard freestyle yet, since she is still not practicing the full 90 minutes in the water that she was swimming last year, but she wanted to try the 200 yard backstroke, so that was her only event for this meet. She seemed in generally good spirits, judging from her laughing and talking with her friends before the meet, but she did admit to me that she was nervous about the race.

Right away, Patrick and I could tell that she wasn't swimming at her best. She was "circle swimming", which is what they have to do during practice because they have to share a lane with others, but that adds time. As the race went on, she wasn't moving her hips as much as she is supposed to, in order to swim a faster race. When she got out of the pool sobbing, though, we definitely knew something was wrong. As early as about 75 yards into the race, she said her hip and back started hurting, but she finished the race.

It's tough to see your child sobbing while laying on the ground with ice on her back. Patrick went to help her and she didn't even complain about how cold the ice was. He knows better than I do what to do in cases like this. All I wanted to do was give her big hugs. This is all part of the healing process--she takes steps forward, but then takes steps backward, too.

Even with swimming in pain, Natalie finished with an official time of 2:44.24, which is a "BB standard time" for 11-12 year olds. That just makes me even more amazed at how awesome my daughter is. I just wish I could take away all her pain.

UIL Competition

I used to participate in UIL Competitions with my school when I was in middle school/high school, and now Natalie is participating as well. She had to get up at 7am this morning, but she did so willingly. I dropped her off before 8am, and I picked her up at about 4pm.

She usually doesn't make a big deal out of these competitions, so we barely hear about how she did. Today she had two medals around her neck, so it was obvious that she did well. She got a first place medal in Math, and a third place medal in Number Sense. The seventh place ribbon was in Spelling. She said she also placed in the top 10 in Science and another subject, but she didn't get ribbons for those yet. Interestingly, she said that she only answered five questions for Science, so she was surprised that she got anything.

She wouldn't let me take a picture of her, but she did allow me to take a picture of her medals and ribbon. I'll take what I can get.

Tomorrow, she has to get up early again to go to a swim meet. She is swimming the 200 yard Backstroke in a competition for the first time. Wish her luck!

Natalie and Me Post #3

This is a picture of Natalie with two of her step-cousins. Next to Natalie is Teagan, and she is 10, almost 11. Sydney is to the far right and she is 8, almost 9. Yes, both of her parents are tall, and Natalie, who already wishes she was taller (because it would be better for swimming), felt even shorter. We are at Lazer Zone, which is a small indoor play place with play structures for Braeden, and arcade type games for the older kids.

We had a lazy day on Monday, our last day in Boston. Natalie and her step-cousins all spent the night in the basement, so she didn't get much sleep. We didn't leave the house until after lunch to go to Lazer Zone. We then went to Anthony's house to meet up with him.

We got there a few minutes before 4pm, while Anthony was still walking back from his class that ended around then. Natalie and I walked around a little, and she really liked this bridge and wanted me to take a picture of her on it. It's easy to see her, of course, with her bright neon yellow sweatshirt.

We had originally planned to take Anthony out to dinner, but he changed plans on us. He is interested in studying abroad next year, and there was a meeting about that from 5-6:30pm. Natalie didn't want to go visit after that because she wanted to go to bed early, so instead we decided to go for ice cream so we could get back in time for his meeting.

He looked up ice cream places on his phone and found a Ben and Jerry's relatively close by. He was terrible at giving me directions. I kept having to turn around again and again. His friend Julia, who also came with us, took the phone from him and gave me directions instead, and she did a much better job. :) We eventually drove up to a movie theatre with nothing else around. Julia was the one who figured out that the Ben and Jerry's must be inside the movie theatre. Apparently, they have movie theatres where you can go eat without buying a movie ticket, which is what we did. That's why I had to take this picture of Anthony with Natalie in front of the Ben and Jerry's sign.

I was sad all over again when we dropped Anthony off for his meeting. We won't see him again until Christmas vacation. We will most likely not see him for Spring Break either. He is weaning himself away from us slowly. :(

Meanwhile, Lisa was delivering her stepkids to their various activities. Derek had left on a business trip. Teagan went to gymnastics at 5:15pm, and Griffin went to football practice at 6pm. We met Lisa back at her house with Sydney and Braeden after they went to get cheese pizza for dinner. Braeden put on a couple of his sisters' headbands and said "cheese" for me when I took this picture. Teagan told me earlier in the day that Braeden gets mad when they take their headbands back from him. He really loves wearing the headbands.

After dinner, Sydney's mom picked her up and was going to pick up her siblings to bring them back to her house. It was really great to be able to see them all this weekend.

Yesterday was a very long travel day for Natalie and me. We got up at 5am. Derek had told me to leave by 5:30am because one of the lanes on the Massachusetts Turnpike was going to be closed. Natalie popped right out of bed, which surprised me, but then she was grumpy for the rest of the day. We were on the road by 5:20am. We got to the car rental place in good time and we were at the airport by around 6:30am. We found out while we were having breakfast that our flight was delayed 20 minutes, due to our plane being delayed getting in.

We arrived in Houston late, but my sister Cynthia was there to pick us up. Poor thing had to drive around and around waiting for us because they wouldn't let her stay in the pick-up area for any length of time. We went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A, went to her house to get Natalie's school backpack and our car, and then we were on our way home. We didn't get home until around 5:30pm. I was glad to see Natalie able to sleep in the car. We were both exhausted and even I was in bed by 8:30pm. It's good to be home.

Natalie and Me Post #2

My sister-in-law's neighborhood is so pretty, with the large, tall trees that are in their autumn colors. Natalie and I had a pretty lazy morning. She read on her Kindle while I wrote a blog post. Meanwhile, my nephew Braeden was up very early. Lisa's stepson Griffin was here overnight also. He wanted to go shoot some baskets at the nearby neighborhood basketball court. When he first mentioned it, I thought it was a short drive away, but it turned out that it was a short walk away. Cool.

As soon as he heard basketball, Braeden grabbed his little basketball and was excited about going. I loved that he wanted Natalie to come along too. It was such a pretty day (60s and sunny at the time) that I had to go too. The light was beautiful, and my nephew is adorable, so I couldn't resist taking pictures. Whenever he sees a camera pointing at him, Braeden immediately stops and says, "Cheese." Awesome photo subject once he stops saying "cheese" and just looks at the camera. Natalie took this photo and posted it to Instagram--her first Instagram post. All of her friends liked it and commented on it, excited that she was finally posting to Instagram.

Instagram and/or selfies was sort of the theme for today. Natalie has been snapping away using my old iPhone 5. She is okay with the fact that it goes right to my photo stream for me to use however I want. She even said that she doesn't like it when I take photos, but she will snap photos of herself all day long and she is fine with it. I am good with that. I got this great selfie with the two of us in it out of that bargain!

We went back home after a short while because Griffin had a football game for his middle school team. He had to be there a whole hour early. Meanwhile, I tried to get in contact with Anthony around 11:30am. I thought he could possibly be up, and he was. We made the plans for the day. He has a test on Tuesday and all of his finals on Thursday, so I let him decide how much he wanted to do today. Eventually, we decided to go pick him up, take him to lunch, and then he wanted to go to Griffin's football game.

Braeden loved seeing himself in photos, and Natalie obliged with her incessant selfie-taking. This is a cute one, though, but then every photo with Braeden in it is cute. They were just biding time while we figured out what our plans would be. Lisa tried to get Braeden to eat lunch for a while, anticipating that he would take a nap in the car on the way to get Anthony, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, at noon Central Time, Patrick took Eric to the Packers bar to see the Packers game. Usually I will stay home with the kids and Patrick goes by himself, but Alex went on his college trip Sunday morning and it was just Patrick and Eric. They have the bar set up as very family friendly, with even a small area for kids to play. Eric said he played with blocks for a while. He's pretty good at using his imagination to keep himself busy. After two hours, however, he wanted to go home. Patrick had to finish out the game at home. Patrick sent me this selfie (again, the theme for today) when Lisa asked to see a picture of him with Eric at the Packers bar.

We went to Anthony's temporary dwelling. Right now, they were told that they could probably move back into the frat house in about four weeks. Great. That makes them move AGAIN in the middle of the next term. Their school year is made up of seven week quarters, and this week is the final week of "A" term. Anthony's room is on the third floor. I lost count because there were so many small flights of stairs winding up to where his room was. His roommate at the frat house has a separate "room" (or "single) on that same floor. One of our plans for today was to take him to the grocery store.

Natalie took this selfie in the car after we got Anthony. He wanted to go to Chipotle for lunch, and even though it wasn't that far, there was a lot of traffic on that road for some reason, and it took us a while to get there. I won't include it here, but Natalie was really getting into taking a bunch of photos, not just selfies, and she took a picture of Anthony eating his quesarito at Chipotle. She just cracks me up--at least I'm a little more selective in the photos I take. :)

By the time we ate at Chipotle and got to Griffin's football game, it was pretty much over. They lost in a close game, so Griffin looked a little down. His mom had brought his sisters to the game, so that's when Derek picked them up to take back to the house. He planned on having the girls have a "slumber party" in the basement yesterday evening. Natalie took this photo of Braeden wearing one of his sisters' headbands and sent it to me via Snapchat. Isn't he adorable?

After the football game, Natalie and I took Anthony back to his house. He dropped off some presents from my mom and sister, then we went to the grocery store (his request) and picked up about $85 worth of groceries. Patrick wondered if Anthony was buying non-healthy foods. Anthony was actually very good. It was Natalie and me that encouraged him to buy snacks, but he only got one half gallon of Dreyer's French Silk ice cream, two bags of candy (Reese's and Heath), and a bag of Pepperidge Farm Orange Milano cookies. Natalie even tried slipping a package of Oreos into his cart, but he told her to put it back. We went back to his house to put away the groceries and to meet up with two of his friends.

We met Anthony's roommate Justin and his friend Mike. Justin had just gotten back from visiting his family over the weekend. He lives about an hour away. Mike is from New York and apparently, Anthony is going back home with him next week during their week off and then they are going to a Breaking Benjamin concert in New York. He's planning on going to another concert later in the year. I think it's great that Anthony gets to take advantage of his location in the Northeast to go to some of these concerts.

Anthony wasn't very hungry at dinner time, so it was hard for him to decide where to go to eat. Justin wasn't hungry either because he had eaten with his family before coming back. Mike was the only one that at least ordered a regular entree at The Boynton. This is where Anthony's friends took him to eat last year for his birthday. Anthony and Justin both only ordered appetizers, and Anthony barely ate his calamari. He did eat some Lobster Rangoons that he ordered as another appetizer. Natalie and I split a small pepperoni pizza. She ate four pieces, so she was apparently the only one hungry. I even told Anthony that he could order something and save the leftovers, but since he isn't really a big leftover person, he didn't want to do that.

We walked back to his house after dinner and said our goodbyes. He has a big test on Tuesday that he seems very worried about, but he did admit that he had to eat dinner, so Natalie and I will be going back there today to have one last meal with him before we go back home tomorrow.

It was really great day today, and I'm glad Natalie and I had this opportunity to see Lisa, Derek, and their wonderful kids, and of course see my first-born son that I miss so much.

Natalie and Me Post #1

This is not a flattering photo of me with my mother and daughter, but I still love it. I decided I wanted a photo of us together, but my dad was the only other one there, and I didn't think his taking the photo would be a good idea for two reasons. He would have had to use two hands and therefore would be standing without assistance, which is not a good idea, and because he likely would not have steady hands and therefore the photo would be blurrier than it already is. I myself was having a hard time holding the iPhone steady. That was partly because I am right handed, and I couldn't hold my huge iPhone 6 Plus with one hand and reach the shutter release button, so Natalie had to press the screen to take the picture. That's why we all look like we're laughing. Fun times. :)

I picked Natalie up from school on Friday and drove straight to my parents house in Houston. Mom made our favorite soups. Natalie had arroz caldo and I had Hot and Sour soup. We then drove to my sister Cynthia's house to spend the night. Natalie got to see her cousins, and I got to chat with my sisters. On Saturday, Melissa drove me to the airport, and Natalie and I are now in the Boston area staying at my sister-in-law Lisa's house. We're here to see her and her family, and also, of course, to see Anthony.

Natalie sent this photo to Anthony on Friday via Snapchat. She purposely likes to say, "I loves you" instead of "I love you". I just think it's cute that she communicates with her big brother directly to say things like that. Her siblings are a little jealous that she gets to see Anthony today.

I was on Face Time with Patrick and Eric when Patrick said that they were about to go to Starbucks. Natalie starts waving her hands frantically, saying, "No fair! You get to go to Starbucks!" Alex responded from the background saying, "Don't say 'Not fair', you get to see Anthony today!" She didn't have a reply to that because she knows she's lucky.

Except for our plane getting delayed from 3:50pm to 4:30pm (which I got a text alert about, so I was prepared), our flight was uneventful. Because of the delay, Melissa had time to take us to lunch at PF Chang's before taking us to the airport. Natalie didn't want any photos at first--her cousins both posed in front of the restaurant with the big horse painted pink, but she wouldn't go out there with them. Once inside, the girls wouldn't pose for a traditional photo for me, but they did let me take this picture. I still love it because it's real. That and I'll take what I can get. I also love photos with the three of them in it. They're all getting so grown up.

When we got to Boston, I was a little anxious because I've never taken a trip on my own like this where I had to rent a car and drive somewhere. Someone usually picks me up or Patrick is there to drive me around. I walked around the car like he always does, and I totally missed two scrapes on the front and rear ends. Luckily, the lady that was checking the car out found them and recorded them.

Google Maps took me on a very windy route to get to my sister-in-law's house. I should have followed my brother-in-law's directions instead, but I needed Google Maps to audibly read me the directions since Natalie was lost in her own world, listening to music with her earphones on. In the end, I needed Derek and his son Griffin to come outside so I could find their house in the dark. I couldn't see the house numbers or anything, and their neighborhood looks way different in the dark. I got there without any other problems, though. Yay me!

Today, Alex is off to an adventure too. He is going on a school trip to visit Texas Tech. Anthony took this trip a couple of times when he was in high school. It's probably mostly social, but it'll still be good for him to see what a college campus looks like. I asked him to take pictures for me, but I don't really expect that he'll do that.

I'll try to post something daily on Natalie's and my adventures, to keep my family up to date. Last night I texted Anthony to ask him when he wanted us to come by to see him. He is studying for finals, so I don't want to interfere with that. He responded, saying that lunchtime would be good, but that he might not be awake, though. Of course I told him to just let me know when he's awake, so we can come over then. We'll see how that works out.

Hectic Evening

I overheard a lady in the locker room at work saying that she couldn't wait to get home so she could lie down on the sofa and rest. I don't get to do that. My second job begins as soon as I I leave work. I left work today, a little before 4pm. I picked up Alex from school at around 4:30pm. We got home at about 4:50pm.

Today, was a little different in that we had an appointment at the Apple Store. Alex's new iPhone 6 has been shutting off at odd times. For example, his phone shut off while it was charging on his clock last night, so the alarm that he had set on his phone did not go off. Last week, he and Patrick went to the Apple Store and they did a full firmware and system restoration, but that didn't work, so we went to the Apple Store again today for another appointment at 5:20pm. So, we got home, Alex backed up his phone, and then we were out the door again to go to the mall for the appointment at 5:05pm.

There was a ton of traffic, so we didn't park until about 5:25pm, and we didn't get into the Apple Store until about 5:30pm. There was a line to check in, so we didn't actually give them our name until 5:35pm. They had given away our appointment by then, so we waited a few minutes. The lady that ended up helping us ended up giving us a new phone, but she said that Alex should set the phone up as a "new" phone instead of restoring it from his backup, because of some sort of conflicting stuff going on that might be the reason why the phone was shutting itself off. We need his phone to work when he goes on a school trip this weekend.

As we were finishing up at the Apple Store around 5:55pm, I called to order some takeout pizza from Grimaldi's Pizzeria. It was ready by around 6:20pm. We left to go to Eric's piano lesson at 7pm. There wasn't much traffic, but there was enough that I couldn't drop Alex off at home first before going to piano lesson. We did, however, have time for me to fill up with gas at Costco for $2.979 per gallon, then we went to the place where Eric has his piano lessons to eat our takeout pizza. We got there by around 6:30pm.

Eric had his lesson from 7-7:30pm, then we were home by about 7:45pm. Eric had a mini ice cream sandwich for dessert, then got ready for bed, then went to bed. Ahhh, at last I get to relax at about 8pm. Patrick got home with Natalie from swim practice at about 8:30pm.

I'm not complaining, though. I know I'll miss it a little when the kids are all gone. I'm kinda crazy that way.

Weekend Update

Nothing much has happened lately, so I don't have a lot of stories to tell on this blog. This past weekend, I was on call on Saturday, so there is definitely nothing interesting to tell about that day, since my family went on with their activities without me. Alex went to a friend's Sweet Sixteen birthday party and then saw a movie afterwards, so that's about it. I got some sleep while on call, but Sunday, my post call day, was still a blur.

I joined Snapchat this weekend, and friended Natalie and Anthony. For those of you that don't know what Snapchat is, it's basically an app on your phone where you can chat and sent photos to one another, and the photos only stay on your screen for a few seconds. You can take a screenshot, and I did take one, but that's not really the point of it. When Anthony got the friend request, he said that it was "slightly weird to have your mom on Snapchat". I told him that I mostly joined because of Natalie but that it all depends on what type of pictures you send.

This is one example of a photo I sent to Anthony. I took a picture of Patrick's donuts that he was having for breakfast and labeled them "Papa's donuts". Anthony replied back with a photo of his schoolwork--a bunch of math-looking formulas and some circular pictures and replied that those were HIS donuts. He is nearing the end of his school term (they are on the quarter system instead of in semesters), so he is getting even busier. Natalie and I will be going up there to visit him at the end of this week, and he will hopefully be able to see us a couple of times, but I don't dare ask him for any more time since he will be studying for his exams next week.

This is a picture of Eric reading his new book. Last weekend, Eric, Natalie, and I were at Barnes and Noble. They both wanted to buy books with their own money. I've got them trained now. They wanted to see what the price at Amazon was. Since it was cheaper at Amazon, they decided to let me order from there.

The books were supposed to arrive on Saturday, and I told them that since I would not be home. Unfortunately, the books did not arrive on Saturday. They were very disappointed. Amazingly, the books arrived on Sunday. I didn't think the US Postal Service delivered packages on Sunday, but I got the text alert on my phone saying that it had been delivered, and sure enough, the package was on the front doorstep.

In case you're wondering what book that is, it's a book called "Dinosaur Wars"--as if Eric needed another dinosaur book. This one compares dinosaurs to one another, though, so it's structured differently than his other dinosaur books.

We had decided to go to our regular church for mass at 5pm on Sunday. We have been going to a different church for the past few weeks, so we forgot that our church's Fall Festival was on Sunday. We only remembered when we were trying to get into the parking lot. Of course mass was cancelled, so we decided to go ahead and go to dinner early. The kids chose California Pizza Kitchen.

Natalie was in fine form. She was chatting constantly about anything and everything. I even took a little video of her and sent it to Anthony via Snapchat. She, of course, kept saying, "Don't take a picture of me!" That's why I decided to take a video. Then, of course, she said, "Are you taking video?!" Heehee. Sneaky mama.

Alex had his earphones in so he could try to tune out his sister's voice. Eric was his normal goofy self. They consented to having their picture taken. I'll take what I can get. I still love this photo because that's who they are. Goofy, lovable boys.

Although today isn't really the weekend anymore, it was my "Sunday" since my whole Saturday was spent at work and I was off yesterday and today. Eric isn't very talkative about his day at school, so I was happy to see a newsletter from his new GT teacher. She has a blog telling about what the kids do in her classes. Eric has GT on Mondays from 9-11am. There was no entry yet for today, but there was an entry for last week, his first GT class for this new school year.

He had received an assignment to do something creative with a square piece of white paper. He started folding it right away but quickly became frustrated because he couldn't get it to look like a dinosaur, which was his intention. Alex was able to coax from Eric that he wanted to make a pteranodon, so Alex and I of course googled "how to fold paper into a pteranodon". Sure enough, there was a video on YouTube. I helped Eric fold the paper, and then he decorated it. This photo was posted on the GT blog. That's when I realized that I had not taken a picture of the pteranodon. The folded object in the upper rightmost corner is Eric's pteranodon. I cropped out the teacher's name at the top. The other objects are what some of the other kids made with their white square piece of paper.

The GT folder also had a newsletter with QR codes on it. QR codes are sort of like the barcodes that you see on products at the store where the cashier scans the barcode and gets the price of the item as well as what the item is. QR codes usually lead to a website. The GT Teacher, Mrs. S, had a QR code for the blog as well as a link to the Google document where I could fill out Patrick's and my contact info and send it to her automatically. Cool. The third QR code led to the GT Twitter page. Wow, I love that she is using technology, because kids nowadays really have to know about this kind of stuff.

Lastly, she sent home something for the parents to do. I'm not sure why the parents were getting homework, because there was no explanation in the newsletter, but Eric had some shapes cut out of yellow paper and paper clipped together, and he said that the parents were supposed to put the shapes back into a square. Patrick, Natalie, and Alex all tried, but not for very long. Alex had homework and Patrick and Natalie were on their way to swim practice. I ha a little more time, so I worked on it, and I solved it.

I have to admit that I did cheat a little. Since Eric cut out the shapes, there were some jagged edges, because he can't yet cut a clean line with scissors. I used that to help me figure out that the two big triangle pieces had to fit together, and then I figured it out from there. So I got a little creative. :)

So, I had a few little stories to tell after all. I should have more interesting photos and stories next week since Natalie and I will be traveling. Alex is also going on a school trip to visit Texas Tech University this weekend--his first college trip. I'll be back next week to recap it all.

Throwback Thursday

I know it's Friday, but I always want to post an old photo on Thursdays when I see everyone else's photos, but I don't have old photos on my phone and there are a few extra steps involved in going home, getting on my computer, and choosing an old photo to post. Today, Anthony texted me to say that his friends wanted to see a picture of him in elementary or middle school with short hair, and he didn't have any, so he asked me to send some. I had to go into the old photos to send him these, after a little reminiscing.

I took this photo when Anthony was about to turn eight (in October 2003). He drew this frog with chalk pastels when he was seven--can you believe that? If his school had not removed art from their curriculum (to save money), then we never would have signed him up for those art classes at Hobby Lobby, and we would never have known that he produce art like this. This photo is framed and in our living room.

Soccer was a big part of our life for some time. This photo was taken in August of 2007, when Anthony was eleven (almost twelve) years old. This was when Natalie also played soccer, as well as Alex. Of course you all know the rest of the story, when Alex and Anthony continued to play soccer, but Natalie went on to take up swimming. Aren't they just adorable? This was also when Anthony was significantly taller than Alex--not anymore.

Anyway, the whole point of this point was to show Anthony with short hair, although I thought his hair seemed pretty short now. His hair started curling when he hit puberty, and he did grow his hair a little longer. It's shorter now than it used to be in high school. This is a picture of him when we were in Wisconsin in August. He looks mad, but he insisted that he wasn't when I took this photo.

I miss this boy so much, but I get to see him next weekend! Natalie and I are traveling to Boston next Saturday to visit him. We'll be staying with my sister-in-law Lisa and her husband Derek. I'm sure I will have a few photos to share during and after the trip.

First Swim Meet Back

Today, Natalie swam in her first club swim meet in eight months. We weren't sure if she would be ready. This past week, for example, she participated in volleyball in PE, which led to some soreness. Mind you, she was told by her physical therapist not to run or jump, but for some reason, she decided that didn't apply to the running and jumping she did while playing volleyball. Yesterday, she started getting sore during swim practice, so she stopped early, because she wanted to be able to swim in the meet today. We were hoping she could just swim hard today without setting back her progress, without making her back sore. Boy did she do that and more.

Her first event was the first event of the meet, the 50 yard butterfly. The fact that she was in the second heat out of nine shows how well she swam before her injury. Her seed time was 33.73 seconds. She looked great during her swim, but the touch pad didn't register her finish, so we couldn't tell what her race time was. She asked the timer at the end of the race, and I saw her smile. She looked up at Patrick and me, smiled, and told us that she dropped time. She dropped 0.42 seconds for a new personal best of 33.31 seconds. She was happy and we were happy.

Her next race was the 50 yard backstroke. Her seed time was 32.53 seconds, and she swam it in 32.90 seconds today. She added 0.37 seconds, but she was not upset at all. She was a little tentative at first, because her touch pad didn't register her finish again. Her friend Ally swam in the lane next to her. We were sitting with Ally's parents and she came up to see them. Ally told me that "Natalie did awesome!" I had to agree.

Natalie's last race was the 50 yard freestyle. Her seed time was 31.17 seconds. This time the touch pad registered her finish. She dropped 0.84 seconds for a new personal best of 30.33 seconds!

On the way home, she looked at her times and she was already making goals of dropping another second off her 50 yard freestyle time so she could get an "A" time. That's what she used to do after a meet. Things are getting back to normal. She still has her ups and downs, but she is definitely doing better. Her hard work paid off today, and we are so proud of her.

Weekend Update

I should have called this post Weekly Update because I seem to only be posting once a week right now, but I intended to post this on the weekend, so here it is.

This first picture shows Eric carrying an old messenger bag that Anthony used to use to put his laptop in. It's looks so big on him, and the strap is the smallest that I can make it, but it's still a good bag and one that is sturdy enough for his piano books. He only had a flimsy free bag before.

He is carrying my iPad, which he has grown quite accustomed to using since the summer. It's his reward, though, because even at seven years old, he will sit down at the piano and practice after he has his after school snack. We don't have to tell him to do it. He is the only child who will also take care of his own dishes after a meal, without being asked. If we ask him to do a chore (usually unloading the dishwasher or folding some laundry), he will usually also do it instead of hiding in his room like his older siblings.

Last week, Natalie was able to make it to three full practices. Her team was working on the breaststroke all week, and she's not supposed to be doing that stroke yet until her back is fully healed, so ended up in her own lane much of the time. The good news is that she is able to do more and more.

The bad news is, at least for Natalie, is that she feels good and ends up overdoing some things. One day in PE last week, she ran a mile. She wasn't happy with her time, which was around 10 minutes, but she was proud of the fact that she was able to run the whole thing. My poor baby girl wants so badly to participate in PE. Her physical therapist now has restricted her from running and jumping in PE, so Natalie won't be tempted to do too much too soon.

My happy news for the week was from Friday, when I received my new iPhone 6 Plus in the mail. The original quoted ship date was the end of October to early November, so it was a very pleasant surprise when it arrived on Friday, the official release date. I've been playing with this thing all weekend. Patrick and the boys received theirs on Friday as well. I was able to walk by the long lines in front of the Apple Store all weekend with my brand new phone that I didn't have to wait in line for. Cool!

Because I got a new phone, I gave my old iPhone 5 to Natalie. She doesn't get to use it as a phone yet, but instead, she gets to use it as an iPod Touch. She loves her Kindle, but all of our apps are for our Apple devices. One of these apps is called SnapChat, where you send photos to your friends and the photo supposedly gets deleted after a few seconds. Natalie decided to take some screenshots of her exchange with her brother. This is what my sweet boy Anthony sent back to her. We'll get to see him in three weeks!

Anthony has been through quite a stressful time at school. He is living in a frat house this year, but on Friday, he found out that he had to move out temporarily. They were supposed to have a sprinkler system installed this summer to bring the house up to code, but the work is still not done, so now the house is deemed "temporarily unsuitable" to live in. The college found some places around campus for the boys to stay in the meantime, but it's temporary, so it's going to be a constant stressor until everything is resolved. Anthony has some pretty difficult junior level classes this year, and he is struggling a little and this added stress isn't helping.

Last Thursday also, Patrick's mom and dad arrived in our general area to look at housing. They've been looking at various retirement communities in this area, and they may have found something. This is a picture of Eric with his grandparents yesterday when we went out to dinner. Tonight, I told him, "It will be nice when Grandma and Grandpa move here. We'll be able to see them more often." He agreed with me, then he said, "It would be nice if we can teleport too." Okay. He is definitely still a seven-year-old boy with a vivid imagination.

That's all for now. Half of last week is gone for me since I had a particularly busy call night last Monday and it took me several days to recover. I'll have more pictures and stories to share later this week.

Natalie's New Room Decor

This week's project was re-doing Natalie's room. Patrick did almost all the work, but now it is done. Yay!

The poor girl still had the Noah's Ark border in there from when she was a baby. She picked out a medium bluish color that looks like teal or turquoise depending on the light. I saw this bed when I was looking at Costco.com, and she picked the silver one (the other color was white). The bed arrived this week. We wanted a trundle bed (which came with it) so she would have an extra spot for whenever she had friends (or cousins) over for a sleepover.

She picked out the quilt during a trip to Target. She also wanted some new sheets for the trundle bed underneath, but her old shark sheets are on there right now. I'm making her wait until we find some sheets on sale!

When Patrick and I finished in there today, I realized that we need to get a bed skirt to hide the trundle. Natalie also wants to get small rug. We also need to move her stuff back in there. She has a bunch of stuffed animals, books, etc. in the game room right now, which is making it difficult for our new housekeeper (yay, we finally got one!) to clean.

We also got her this chair last week. This is just her and her Papa goofing around. Patrick is constantly asking her, "Is that good for your back? Maybe you shouldn't do that." She returns the favor by saying the same thing to him--also constantly. His back isn't going to be feeling good this evening after all of that painting and putting together the bed.

That messy pink bed in the background is now gone. I gifted it to one of the new residents who has two young daughters. He came to pick it up yesterday.

I hope she likes her new bed all put together. She'll see it when she gets home this afternoon. Natalie has been sleeping in Eric's other bed in his room during the renovation. Now, she won't have to sleep with Eric again tonight!

Everyday September Photos

This is another random photo post. I try to take photos every day, with almost all of them being iPhone photos. I organize most of them into monthly folders called "Everyday". In the future, I hope these will offer a glimpse of what my life was like at this time.

This first photo was taken during a shopping trip to North Star Mall on Labor Day. Every time I take Eric to the mall, he wants to visit the Lego Store. He spends most of his time in the Lego Store looking at Lego sets that he is interested in. Right now he likes looking at the Lego Chima sets. In the past he has looked at the Lego Star Wars sets, and then another period of time he was into the Lego Ninjago sets.

There is something called a "digital box" in the Lego store. What happens is that you hold a boxed set in front of the screen of the "digital box". The camera scans the boxed set, then displays a 3-D cartoon rendering of the item in the box, fully built, on the screen as if the item is on the box. Eric did this for several boxed sets, even a couple that were almost too big for him to lift up. I have to admit that the concept is pretty cool.

Last week, Natalie fully participated in PE, which meant that she did a lot of running. She started hurting from doing all of that activity, so she didn't go to swim practice. I took that opportunity to take her to our local Payless shoe store, where they were having a buy one get one-half off sale. I had to drag her out of the house, but I didn't know when else I could go shopping with her, so I made her go. She needed some black flats to wear with her Honors Band uniform, then I got her another pair of shoes (Ugg boot lookalikes) that she has been asking for that she can wear in the winter during swim meets.

While we were there there, she decided to try on other pairs of shoes for fun. She tried on this high-heeled pair, saying that she didn't know how to walk in high heels. She did okay walking around in these, but it did scare me just a little that her feet looked so "grown up".  She would never have considered wearing shoes like this, even for a moment, a few years ago. It used to be sneakers all the time for her.

Eric and I also made a stop at the Disney Store at the mall on Labor Day. After looking at the Guardians of the Galaxy display for a while, he decided that he wanted a "Star Lord" costume for Halloween. The costume at the Disney Store was $50, but the one that fit him was missing a mask. I didn't really want to spend $50 on a costume for him, so I found this one on Amazon for around $20. It arrived a few days later, and he finally tried it on this weekend. I need to make some adjustments, but at least he seems to like the costume.

I made some very simple cards this weekend. I needed a couple of sympathy cards and some thank-you cards. I am SO rusty at playing with paper! This one turned out okay, but the others were pretty plain. I need to replenish my stash of cards, so I will hopefully make some and share one or two of them here.

The Noah's Ark border is still up in Natalie's room since she was a baby. Even when we replaced her crib with a bunk bed, we left the border up. We just bought Natalie a more grown-up bed. After all, she doesn't even like pink anymore, and that is what color the decorations on her bunk bed are. Patrick brought home some paint chips, and she chose this color. He painted a swatch of it on the wall today so she could see what the color looked like on the wall. The color depends on the lighting in there, but she liked this one. Patrick plans on painting Natalie's room before putting her new bed in there. I'll be sure to take more pictures when that happens.

Ah, sibling togetherness! Alex started playing FIFA Soccer on the PS3 this afternoon. Natalie plopped herself next to him on the sofa so she could do her homework. When she took her sheet of math homework out, she dropped it, and for a few minutes she couldn't find it. Alex helped her by looking under the sofa and everywhere else. I told them that it had to be under the sofa. Finally, Natalie looked again, and sure enough--it was under the sofa. Alex moved the sofa so Natalie would not have to put her hand under there. He was so helpful! This is just a picture just after he picked up the paper off the floor for her. I know it's a blurry photo, but you can still see the embarrassed expression on Natalie's face and the smile on Alex's face. I love it when they get along.

To top it off, Natalie asked Alex to help her with her Science homework. She missed a lot of Science last week when her physical therapy appointments were during Science, so she didn't get to hear the lesson, but she still had to do the homework. He was very patient with her many questions and even encouraged her to think of the answer on her own instead of him telling her. I enjoyed listening to them getting along.

That's the end of my random photo post for today. I'll have plenty more of these posts in the future.

Random August Photos

I'm getting used to cramming all of my photos into one post now, but that just adds to the randomness of this post. I have a few non-road trip related photos that I haven't shared yet. These are all iPhone photos, so excuse the quality.

I took this first one at Wing Stop. We went there for dinner after church. Alex got the 20 wing combo. I texted this photo to Anthony and told him Alex got the 20 wings and he texted back "I am so proud."

The big boys are both wing fans and especially HOT wing fans--Eric...not so much. Alex tried so hard to convince him they were just like chicken nuggets, but Eric did not eat well at all. I have to admit that I'm a wing fan but not a boneless wing fan. I hate all of that breading. Patrick wasn't a big fan of the breading either. Natalie enjoyed hers.

This is the only picture that Anthony has sent from college so far, even though I asked him directly if he could get a friend to take a picture of him in front of the frat house where he'll be living this school year. He texted this photo to Patrick and me, saying that he added his own touch to his room decor--an "Exit" sign above his third floor window. Nice.

Anthony has been spending a lot of time cleaning. They installed a sprinkler system in the house this summer. Apparently they didn't start when they were supposed to, meaning that they weren't done when they were supposed to. They also left a big mess. That sounds like a lot of renovation stories, doesn't it?

He seems happy with his classes, and he seems very happy spending time with his friends. We already sent him a care package with some of his favorite things--Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars (a recipe I got from a friend), Pringles Cheddar Cheese, Heath Bars, and his favorite sweatshirt that he left behind at home.

I had to share this photo because Natalie and Eric are actually getting along and they actually look like they are having fun. What happened was that I walked into the game room one morning, and found Eric reading to Natalie with Natalie's head in his lap. What a sweet sight! Natalie started adjusting her long hair, and it ended up getting all over Eric. That's what started the giggling.

Eric doesn't like this picture at all. I flipped Natalie's hair onto his head. (That's Natalie's head behind Eric's head.) Natalie thought he looked so cute like that. She had me text her this photo, and every time she brought out the photo to show to someone, Eric would tell her how he didn't like that photo. He does look super-adorable, though.

Eric is still very dinosaur-obsessed. He reads one of his dinosaur books almost daily. None of them are beginning reader-type books, so he can spend a lot of time reading the same book. One day, Patrick told me to go upstairs to the game room to take a picture of Eric. When I got up there, he showed me this "life-size" picture of a T. Rex jaw. He thought it was cool that the T. Rex jaw was as big as he was tall!

The week before school, we made a trip to our local Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Alex met up with a few of his friends, and they roamed the park on their own. The rest of us went together, including Natalie's friend Allison. Natalie hates it when I take pictures of her, so I thought this picture was great in that I got a photo of Eric and me plus Natalie unaware of having her picture taken.

Eric was disappointed that he couldn't go on any of the big roller coasters, because he was just a little too short. He went on the Kiddie Coaster instead with Patrick, and he loved it. He didn't really think it was a real coaster, though, because it they didn't get to go upside down. I have a feeling that he will be riding the big coasters as soon as he is big enough. Patrick will have to ride with him because I don't like any roller coasters!

Patrick decided to clean out the hall closet during the week before school started. There was a lot of stuff in there, ranging from old coats to old soccer balls to old school stuff. I'm so glad that he does this sort of purging once in a while, because I am a total pack rat. I gave away some of Natalie's old (like size 4/5) jackets to one of the residents who has a four-year-old daughter.

I need to take a picture of the new and improved closet now that there is actually space to put their school things after they get home from school (instead of on the living room floor).

Natalie's friend Allison invited her to go with her and her family to camp out at the beach. This was Natalie's first camping trip ever. Allison's dad Brian texted this photo to Patrick. They certainly seemed to be having fun. When they dropped Natalie off the next day, however, he said they had the worst night they've ever had there. Usually there is a nice breeze coming from the water, but on that night there was no breeze plus it was super-humid. It was so humid that there was condensation inside in the tent. Some of that fell on Natalie and she thought it was raining.

I think she had fun overall, but I don't see her going on another camping trip any time soon. I'm definitely not a camper either. I don't mind being outside and being active, but at night, I want to sleep in a comfy bed with air conditioning!

Last, but not least, I wanted to share this photo of Eric with his completed Lego Chima Saber-Tooth Tiger. He built this all by himself and he looks rather proud. He had me take another picture of the tiger with its mouth open, showing those fierce teeth.

This month, I'll try to post my random September photos while it's actually still September.