Welcome to SA

My in-laws arrived in town yesterday. They are closing on their house tomorrow. They've been shopping for furniture as they got rid of some of their stuff when they sold their house in California. We met them at the Longhorn Steakhouse out by the hotel that they are staying at, a bit more north than where their house is. It took over an hour to get there, including dropping off Alex at a friend's house.

The kids seemed excited about their grandparents being in town. I know I'm excited about it. I've always wished that my kids could grow up with their grandparents around, and though it's a little late for Anthony and maybe Alex, it'll be nice for Natalie and Eric. They'll probably stay at our house on Monday night, since their furniture won't be delivered yet.

Patrick has been going to a "Packers bar" nearby, for the Packers games this football season. They had a tailgate party outside the bar today, and I brought Natalie and Eric to it. They served hotdogs, burgers, and brats, played music, and had games for everyone to enjoy.

They played this one game that involved tossing balls held together by a string. I love Natalie's face here, after she totally missed the target. Her expression is probably similar to the one I made when I totally missed the target when I first tried to play. I almost hit someone, it was so off target.

Eric was a little intense during his turns. He did at least as well as Natalie and definitely better than me. They also played some other bean bag tossing games. There was face painting and a bouncy house, and there was someone making balloon animals, but we didn't participate in those.

Grandma and Grandpa called when we had been there around an hour, saying that they were on their way. The temperatures were in the 70s and sunny, and the kids were hot and wanted to go home, so we didn't get to see Grandma and Grandpa. They got to meet some other Packers fans, though, and it was still cool that they were so close by that they could just drop by and see us. We're so glad they will be here, at least part of the year. Welcome to San Antonio, Grandma and Grandpa!

No Water

I snapped this photo last night when we went to Willie's Icehouse for the "Willie's Night" fundraiser for Eric's school. His school gets a small percentage of the profits from "Willie's Night" once a month. I saw what looked like a hug between Natalie and Eric, and I said I wanted a picture. Natalie, of course, said that she didn't want a picture, which is why it looks like she's trying to get away from Eric. Eric obliged as always--I love my Eric hugs!

It was a nice family dinner, even though we had to meet there. I brought Alex after I picked him up at school. Patrick brought Eric and Natalie after Natalie's physical therapy appointment. Natalie is now going to be fitted for a support belt for her hips. The physical therapist isn't sure if it will work, and she doesn't know what else to try, so we'll try using a loaner. We'll buy one specifically for Natalie if the loaner works for her. This is week four of Natalie not swimming after her latest injury on October 19. It was nice to see her smiling, even for a little while.

It was also nice for everyone to have a little smile, because the rest of the night was not that great. We did not have running water at our house last night. Patrick explained it to me earlier today, when the plumbers were installing the new water softener, the new water heater, and the pressure regulator. Yes, we just spent around $5000, but now we have water.

We didn't have a pressure regulator, so the water pressure was very high going into our house. The pressure wasn't so high in the past, so we didn't need the pressure regulator, but apparently it's high now. It's high enough that it basically pushed the resin that is in the water softener into our water lines and plugged them up--hence no water. Patrick suspected that our water heater was going to need to be replaced soon, so he had the plumbers inspect that also, and sure enough, it needed to be replaced, so he went ahead and told them to replace that too.

When it happened, Natalie was in the shower. She complained that the water was yellow-colored and that there was something in the water that looked like beads that got in her hair, so she stopped the water and got out. Poor thing was wrapped in a towel in her room waiting for a resolution. Thankfully, I had texted my friend Alicia, who lives around the corner, and she offered up her bathroom for showers. I took Natalie over there so she could finish up her shower. I washed my face and brushed my teeth while I was over there with her, and we used bottled water until the plumbers came this morning. I took a shower at the gym this morning.

I'm on call tonight, and I arrived at work early. I joked with some people at work that I came early since I had to go to the bathroom and since we didn't have running water at home, it was just as well that I came to work. Poor Patrick has been cleaning up since the plumbers left. It's a great start to our Thanksgiving holiday. We're just thankful that the water heater didn't explode as it did for our neighbors, especially because our water heater is in our attic. I'm thankful that our friend let us use her bathroom. We're also thankful that the plumbers were able to fix the problem today. Last but certainly not least, I'm thankful that Patrick figured out what was happening, because I had no idea about resin in the water softener until he explained all of this to me today.

Book Fair

Tonight was Family Night at Eric's school Scholastic Book Fair. He had gymnastics from 5-6pm, and we went straight to his school after that, since they were only going to be open until 7pm. As usual, he made a beeline for the non-fiction books. He asked for yet another dinosaur book, and he also asked for a book on wild animals. I told him he had to find a fiction book.

He looked at a Captain Underpants book, a series that his older siblings enjoyed and that he has also enjoyed reading. He didn't seem that keen on getting it, though. I found a couple of books about his current favorite TV show--Star Wars Rebels. He seemed very excited about those. He also found the sequel to a book he got last year at the book fair, about a Star Wars Jedi Academy. I held him to three books, and he was pretty happy with those three. They are not easy books to read, so I think he will be appropriately challenged. We're so lucky our kids love to read.

I also looked for a poster that he could hang in his room. He was interested in a dinosaur one to replace the Cars movie and Thomas the Tank Engine stickers that are currently on the wall in his room. I found it amusing that he made a sort of disgusted sound when I told him what was available. He said, "You mean they only have sports ones?" I replied, "And puppies." My youngest son is SO not going to be an athlete.

Lazy Days

This is a picture of Natalie coming home from school on Friday. She was hiding her face up and I snapped a few photos before she finally uncovered her face at the top of the stairs. She acted upset that I took the photos, but she was so tickled that I kept snapping photos that she didn't mind in the end. I love seeing her smile. She doesn't do that so much lately.

It's been chilly and drizzly here, so we didn't do too much this weekend. We didn't even want to go outside. It's just as well that Natalie had to miss another swim meet this weekend, that we originally signed up for, because of her back. Ever since she hurt her back during the 200 yard backstroke race on October 19th, she has been very sore or even hurting. She only had one physical therapy appointment last week because they wanted her to rest her back. She has only been to two swim practices since then, and in one of those she got out of the water after about 10-15 minutes. We continue to pray for her recovery. It's tough not being able to do anything to help her, except taking her to her appointments.

The only thing I can do is to try to get Natalie to focus on other things. One of those things is her growing obsession with collecting Starbucks gift cards. Her face lit up when she saw this huge display of the new ones for this holiday season. There are holiday ones, thank you ones, ones with all the letters of the alphabet, and there are some really cute ones at that. I have to admit that she is a little like me. I tend to collect things, although I've stopped just because I don't want to organize it all plus I don't have space. She spent some time putting her collection into baseball card protectors that I got a year or so ago for pictures, but that I haven't used.

Natalie also had another UIL competition. I didn't ask her what she entered, but she did tell me that she got twelfth place in Number Sense and she was in a four-way tie for sixth place in Math. She spent all of Saturday at the competition instead of going to the swim meet. It was good for her to be busy and to be able to see her friends.

Eric has been playing a lot on my iPad. I should basically consider it HIS iPad since he is the only one that uses it. We make him take breaks to do other things, but he really deserves it. Every day, when he gets home from school, he has a routine. He has a small snack first, then he immediately goes to the piano to practice. After that he will do his homework. He only has one packet that he often finishes in one or two sittings, so when he finishes he won't have any more homework for the rest of the week. We don't have to say anything--he'll just do his piano and his homework on his own. Besides that, he has gymnastics on Monday afternoons from 5-6pm, and piano on Thursdays from 7-7:30pm. If we ask him to unload the dishwasher, he does that right away, unlike his siblings. If we ask him to fold some laundry, he'll do that right away too. How can I say "no" to the iPad when he asks for it?

Eric had a piano recital on Saturday. He memorized two pieces for the recital. I didn't have to help him at all, since I'm usually not home yet when he practices anyway. His teacher keeps saying that he is progressing quickly despite being so self-driven. During the recital, he forgot his second piece. He had to pause and try to figure it out, but he did it all by himself. He was composed and didn't look alarmed or anything. We were so proud. When he finished, he came back to where we were sitting and had a little smile on his face. Patrick and I took him out to eat at a place of his choosing (CPK). His siblings didn't want to come, so they got to eat at home.

Patrick and Alex have both been distracted with Patrick's new toy. Patrick bought himself a Playstation 4 (PS4) on Friday and spent the rest of the day setting it up. He and Alex have been spending time playing it. Officially, it's Patrick's birthday present, but I'll have to get him something else to open on his actual birthday. He and Alex are currently "fighting" over who gets to play right now. I love that they get to do something together.

By the way, Alex doesn't usually go around the house with his hoodie on his head. He saw me trying to take a picture so he put the hoodie on so his face wouldn't be on the picture. Yes, he and Natalie like to avoid pictures.

So, we mostly stayed at home this weekend, but at least we got to spend some time together.

November Art a la Carte

Today was Eric's monthly art class. I'm still a little thrown off by the fact that lunch for Eric is 11:05-11:35am, and then his art class isn't until 12:35-1:30pm--not right after like it was last year. He still wants me to bring him lunch from Wendy's, so I have to go home for an hour then come back. I came back a little late this time, and class had already started. Besides my not paying attention to the time, the school clock must also be faster than mine.

I totally missed the art teacher's talk on Eric Carle and how he painted pieces of paper then pieced them together to make his art. When I came in, they were already painting. They were using two colors of paint per table and painting white pieces of paper. They then added texture with sponges and forks. We then took those painted papers away to dry and be used for another second grade art class. We pulled out papers that another class had painted and that were already dry and cut up into pieces for Eric's class to use.

Half the class made caterpillars and half the class made butterflies. There were only a couple of kids that were particular on which they wanted to make, but the teacher had the mostly girl side of the class do the butterflies and the mostly boy side of the class do the caterpillars. The other volunteer and I passed out "kits" with the appropriate amount of pieces of paper, some templates for the bodies, heads, and tail, and a larger piece of white paper for a background.

The kids didn't get to choose the colors of papers they got to use, but Eric's happened to be the right colors to mirror the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" from the book. He decided he didn't want his caterpillar to have legs. Another girl wanted to draw her butterfly's eyes on instead of using paper piecing. The kids all find a way to express themselves in their art projects.

Eric was all ready for me to take a picture of him with his art work, even before I was. I love spending time volunteering at school with my child who still wants me around at his school.

Natalie had an Honors Band performance this morning at a nearby assisted living home. In the end she decided it would have been okay for Patrick and me to attend, but she had said earlier that she really didn't want us there, and so we didn't make plans to go. I'm glad that Eric still wants me around--for now.

Gymnastics M'Kay

This is not a great photo of Eric at his gymnastics class today, but it's really hard to get a good photo there. The lighting isn't great, and he spends most of the class on the far side of the room. Before one of the teacher/helpers started helping him get up to that bar, he was able to pull himself up on his own a couple of times. He started looking pretty tired after that and couldn't lift himself up anymore, so she helped him. Before this, he was on the rings and able to easily flip over repeatedly. I wish I could have gotten video of that, but again, he was too far away.

We've been trying to find a sport that Eric loves. He enjoys all the sports that he has been in, but he doesn't really LOVE any of them. Anthony and Alex both loved soccer and stuck with it. Natalie loves swimming and has so far stuck with it despite her injury. Eric enjoys being active, and he enjoys meeting other kids and having fun, but besides that, he doesn't really care which sport he gets to participate in. We're probably going to try martial arts next.

When we ask him if he wants to do a particular thing (not just sports), he will often answer "M'Kay", which is probably a cross between "Uh-hum" and "Okay". Most of the time, he just says "M'Kay" in a sort of nonchalant tone, and he seems to be saying "Yes, I have nothing else better I want to do, so let's do that". If he is more excited about the proposition, he'll bounce a bit more, but still often say "M'Kay", but more excitedly. When we asked him if he wanted to do gymnastics again, he replied in his nonchalant "M'Kay" tone. Oh, and by the way, if he doesn't want to do something, he'll say "No, thanks."

I told him that one day, he will not say "M'Kay" anymore, and I'll miss it. Until then, we'll let him try this and that, and hopefully we'll find some activity where he will respond with an excited "M'Kay!"

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!