Eric's School Project

Whenever teachers assign projects to kids in elementary school, or really any child below high school age, they are really assigning a project to the child's parents. They can say that the child has to do the project on their own, but there is now way Eric knows enough about how to do projects to be able to do it on his own. When they assign a project due the Monday after Spring Break, they are assigning homework over vacation. Eric has a project due tomorrow, the Monday after Spring Break, and Patrick and I were not happy about it. Thankfully, we actually did not plan a big trip to Colorado this year, and especially one in which we get back the weekend before school starts, or it could have been worse.

The project involved Eric coming up with important events/dates in his life, such as vacations, important firsts, etc. Eric had a worksheet and all he put on it was what grade he was in during each year. He knows his birthdate, but he had no idea what dates anything else happened. He knows we took vacations, but he has no idea what the dates were. No third grader would be able to come up with that stuff on his own!

We still wanted Eric to do most of the project, of course, so I let him look at my photo library and let him pick out which pictures/events he wanted to include. I had to guide him because there was no way he was going to be focused enough to sort through those thousands of pictures I have of him since he was born. I'm afraid I provided him with too many options his first year, because we chose four pictures from 2007, his birth year, but then I only showed him a few events from each of the following years, so he chose a total of 13 pictures. The instruction sheet for the project suggested including pictures, so to Eric, that meant we didn't have to include pictures--of course we had to include pictures! Plus it's nicer to look at if there are pictures!

Patrick helped him write down the important events on little strips of paper, and I glued it all down. The timeline was not to scale because I wanted to include larger pictures, but I thought it made a nice visual timeline of Eric's life up to this point. Eric chose to leave the background white (he really is a no-frills kid) and wanted one long strip with the timeline drawn in on the bottom. We put paper strips with dates on the timeline that matched the color of the paper strips describing the important event. Eric did all the writing.

Just to show what events he thought was important, here is a list:

April 7, 2007--Birth (with photo of Patrick holding baby Eric)
Sept 2007--First plane trip (photo of me holding Eric on the plane)
Sept 2007--First Disney trip (photo of Anthony holding Eric--one of my all-time favorite photos)
Dec 2007--First Christmas (photo of all 4 kids in matching Christmas pajamas from Grandma)
Mar 2008--First Snow (in Colorado--with photo of Patrick holding Eric on a sled)
July 2009--First trip to Washington, D.C. (photo of Patrick with the kids with the Capitol in the background)
Aug 2010--Ring Bearer (photo of Eric being the ring bearer at my cousin Rachael's wedding in Michigan)
June 2011--Lolo's 80th Birthday (photo of my dad being embraced by all his grandkids with Eric hidden under everyone else--interestingly, Eric decided to put "Grandpa" instead of "Lolo" so other people would know who he is)
Aug 2012--First Day of School (photo of Eric waiting for the school bus on the first day of kindergarten)
Mar 2013--First Cruise (photo of Eric with cousin Aly and Natalie on a beach in the Bahamas)
Mar 2014--Spring Soccer (Eric really wanted to include a photo of himself playing soccer)
Aug 2014--Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary (photo of everyone on that side of the family except for Uncle Geoff)
Aug 2015--Eric's First Jiu-Jitsu (photo of Eric smiling after his very first Jiu-Jitsu class--he really wanted to include something about Jiu-Jitsu)

I sure hope "we" get a good grade on this project.

Walks to the Park

The weather has been beautiful here this month--lots of sunny days with the temperatures in the 60s and 70s. Eric has also started enjoying one of the nearby parks called Phil Hardberger Park. He likes playing on playground equipment there, from the swings to the climbing structures. We've been walking there on most of the Saturdays this month, and even on some Sundays.

Eric is usually pretty energetic on the way to the park. He often jogs most of the way there. Mind you--it's over a mile walk to get to the playground from our house and he jogs most of the way. He is not usually as energetic on the way back. I usually have to convince him to walk a little faster. There are a few benches on the way, but there is one in particular that is about halfway between our house and the playground. There is a circular paved area in front of that bench. In the past, I've run some laps around that small circular area in front of the bench to get some extra cardio exercise in while he rested. I tell him how many laps I'm going to run and then I tell him that after that many, I want to get going. This time he told me something like, "You can run three laps while I rest and then we can go." He wasn't bossy, but I thought it was funny that he was telling me how many laps to run. This is a picture of him holding up how many laps I've just run! He wanted to make sure I didn't lose count. :)

This is from yesterday--Saturday. Patrick went with Eric and me to the park. He decided to get on one of the swings with Eric, and here he is trying to time his swing so that he could swing with Eric. After a few minutes, Patrick went back ahead of us so he could go ahead and take his shower before we got home, then we could get ready to go to church and then dinner.

Alex was out with friends and was planning to spend the night at his friend John's house. Natalie was at a birthday party all day, but she was going to want to be picked up so that she could get some good sleep in her own bed. It was just the three of us all afternoon and evening--a glimpse of our future when the oldest three leave home. Patrick and I are savoring our time with our Eric, and the weather has been cooperating.

Student-Led Conference

My schedule for this week flip-flopped a couple of times, but luckily, the end result was that I got the day off today. That meant that I got to attend Eric's Student-Led Conference at school which Patrick had already scheduled for today at 1:20pm. Eric had an early dismissal from school today at 1pm, so we met up with him shortly before his scheduled conference then went to his classroom to wait for his teacher. His teacher was out with the kids in class who were going to be picked up in the car line, so she wasn't there at first.

I'm not sure if Eric was nervous or impatient, but he pulled up a chair at his desk (all the chairs in the classroom had been stacked and put away), and when Patrick and I grabbed chairs and sat down also, Eric opened up his binder and started reading from a script. They started doing these "Student-Led Conferences" a few years back. I prefer the parent-teacher conferences where we get to talk to the teacher, but these are good practice for the kids to practice getting organized and talking about their progress in school. Of course I enjoy spending more time with Eric, especially when he says more than "good" when we ask him how school went.

I included the front and back of the front page of his presentation. Eric read these pages and all the other pages in a monotonous tone. I tried to teach him about making eye contact with your audience when you're doing a presentation. He nodded to acknowledge what I said, but then proceeded to read without looking up in a monotonous tone just as he was before. The rest of the presentation was pretty much the same, with a few details including some benchmark scores and reading levels.

If you click on the pictures, you can see them bigger so you can actually read the pages. Note that Eric answered all the questions with what you might expect. "If you just walked into the room, you would probably see me like this: I pay attention. When we're discussing something as a class, and I know the answer: I raise my hand." Of course, when his teacher came in, she confirmed that Eric is "a good boy" and those answers were accurate after all. I had no doubt, but I just had to make sure. :)

First Cotillion

As I mentioned in my last post, Natalie's back has not been doing so well lately. The good news is that the X-rays and MRI she had done yesterday all came back normal. This frustrates her because she doesn't know why her back is worse now than it has been, even though she is diligent in her strengthening exercises. Patrick and I are happy that nothing is structurally wrong with her back, though, because that means her physical therapist can do what she needs to do without injuring her further.

Tonight is Natalie's first Cotillion dance. I was surprised when she wanted to sign up for this a while back, but I'm glad she's putting herself out there. She is going with a bunch of her friends. In fact, Patrick just got back from dropping her off. With her back injury, we have been the most worried about her mental health, and it is so nice to see her happy and going out to be with her friends. We are doing what we need to do to support her in this, to make this the best experience possible.

Natalie wasn't sure what to do with her hair, so I suggested we go to the hair salon that we get our hair cut, to get her hair styled. I knew she didn't want some fancy up-do, just a blow-dry, straightener, and then just a few curls, so that was the perfect place to go. Forty-five dollars later, she is very happy with her hair. I did tell her that she needs to learn how to do this herself, so she talked about buying her own hair straightener. I don't have any concept since I've always had straight hair.

I would have bought her a dress for this, but we bought this dress from Altered States a couple or so months ago, and she wanted to wear it. I bought the jacket from Ann Taylor a year ago and she has hardly worn it, but the red looks good with the red in the dress. For the first time, she also dipped into my jewelry. My friend Melissa, who sells Stella&Dot products, would have happy to see her in the Arrow Drop earrings and part of the Aria pendant necklace combo. Doesn't she look all grown up?

I just want to also do a short update on the other kids. Eric had his first "big" Jiu-Jitsu tournament at San Antonio College today. He competed in his weight class (all 55 pounds of him) in the 8-10 age group. He only had one match, which he apparently lost very quickly. I love that he just went in there and did it. He gained experience that he can apply to other competitions in the future. Alex took the SAT this morning. He made the decision himself to take it for the second time after he was not happy with his first score. Patrick just left to go take him to his friend Dylan's house. Anthony is hopefully busy looking for a summer job, but after dropping one class, he now added another and has a complete schedule.

I was on call last night, so I'll probably go to bed after I have some dinner. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Natalie Back Update

Tonight we were at Willie's Icehouse and Grill Restaurant for Eric's school's fundraiser night called "Willie's Night". Patrick had come from piano lessons for the two of them, and I had come from home. After work today, I picked up Alex late, drove home, went for a run, then met them at the restaurant. Alex had too much homework and he was actually already sitting down and working on it, so I offered to order food for him and bring it home.

This is a picture of Eric and Natalie "pretending" to get along. I put that in quotation marks because the two of them usually get along, but sometimes Natalie likes to stir up some drama and pretend she doesn't get along with her brother. At first they were going to pose as if they didn't get along, but Patrick persuaded them to be "nice". Natalie loves to tell Eric, "I'm your favorite sister." Instead of humoring her, Eric can't just say, "Yes" or "Yes, you're my favorite sister." He always has to add, "You're also my least favorite sister."

Natalie had another appointment with the doctor about her back this morning. She hasn't gone to see him in a long time, but she has continued with physical therapy at least once a week. Unfortunately, her physical therapist said that the exercises and therapies that Natalie has responded to in the past don't seem to be working now. She is the one who suggested that we go ahead and see Dr. R again. On exam, Dr. R concluded that her core is stronger than it was before, but her core still needs to be stronger than that. He doesn't know what is going on, and since it has been more than a year and a half since Natalie had back X-rays and MRI, he ordered more imaging. Her appointment to get those done is this coming Friday.

It has been two years since she first injured her back, and it has been a very long journey. Patrick and I feel so helpless and we both wish we could do more to take her pain away. For the first time, she has started mentioning maybe not swimming in high school, which hurts my heart, because she used to have such a "fire" in her when it came to her love for swimming. The problem is that she still wants to do some sort of activity, even if it's not swimming, but every activity involves her using her back. It's just not fair that there are so many inactive people out there, but here is one kid who wants to be active, but can't be active. Sigh. Eric includes Natalie in his prayers every night.

On a lighter note, after we finished dinner at Willie's, Patrick took Eric home and Natalie and I stopped off at Academy, since it was nearby to Willie's. She and I both need some new socks. She stated that she recently discovered that none of her socks have a matching sock. She has worn mismatching socks for years, so this fact was not obvious. We both picked out some new pairs, but I thought it was interesting that I picked out brighter pairs than my thirteen year old daughter. The two packages on the left are my socks, and the two on the right are Natalie's. I guess I just like brighter colors than she does. It was nice, though, to see her smiling and joking around with me while we shopped. I miss my carefree baby girl, and I hope and pray I get her back one day soon.

January Art a la Carte

Today was Eric's monthly art class, called Art a la Carte. They made figures out of pipe cleaners and aluminum foil and mounted them on wood blocks painted black. Here is Eric posing with his finished product, which is holding a lightsaber. Of course, he is pretending to also be holding a lightsaber and looking very intimidating. :)

They were studying an artist named Alberto Giacometti, who was born in Switzerland in 1901. His father was also an artist, specifically an impressionist painter named Giovanni Giacometti. Alberto was a surrealist sculptor who Mrs. R, Eric's art teacher explained that Surrealism was an "expression of the unconscious", or a "dreamlike idea of what things look like". I had some idea of what Surrealism was, mostly from seeing Salvador Dali's paintings, but it was cool to see the work of surrealist sculptor.

This is Mrs. R's example bulletin board. She modeled the assignment after Giacometti's "walking man" sculpture. I like taking a picture of her example so I can remember what the art is "supposed to" look like.

The kids started off by learning how to sand a block of wood. They had huge gloves with a sort of plastic-coated palm area so their hands would be protected from the wood splinters. It was interesting that even when she told them to use the sandpaper along the grain of the wood, many of the kids still used the sandpaper in any direction they felt like. They used two types of sandpaper, the coarser one first, then the finer one. I might have known that at one time, but certainly didn't remember it.

Next, they painted the wood block with black paint. One little girl got very upset when she got some paint on her shirt. They all got their hands messy, but nothing that baby wipes didn't take care of.

Next, the fashioned a small piece of aluminum foil into a ball (for the head). They wrapped one of the pipe cleaners over and around the ball to make the head and arms. The other pipe cleaner wrapped around the first one to make the legs. They were then supposed to wrap the aluminum foil around the whole thing, squishing it down to make it tight so it didn't fall off. She specifically warned them not to use small pieces of aluminum foil to cover up bare spots, because that small piece would fall off. I helped several kids wrap their figures, and I had to keep reminding them not to use small pieces, but of course, almost all of them did.

After they were done wrapping, they were allowed to make "props" like the lightsaber, soccer balls, or whatever. I helped a couple of them attach their "props" to their figures, again with wrapping long pieces of foil around everything. The teacher then came around and stapled their figures to the wood block.

I think this every month, but I really wish I could follow along in class and make my own art work. I learn so much from this class, and I am also so glad they are flexible enough at work to allow me to take the day off for this class every month!

Thank You Notes

I am glad I actually remembered to get Anthony to write thank you notes before he left for school. I gave him a stack of thank you cards on Sunday, and he remembered to do them on Monday. Tonight, I got the other kids to do their part as well.

Alex did his notes when he got home from school and before he did his homework. As he was starting to write, he said that Anthony had already said the things that he would have said, like "it was great to see you" or "see you soon". In the end, his creative side came out. When Anthony thanked Aunt Melissa for the jacket she got him, because otherwise, he might have taken Alex's jacket just like it, Alex thanked her for getting Anthony the jacket because otherwise Anthony might have taken his!

Natalie and Eric were at piano lessons when Alex and I got home. I got them to do their notes after dinner and after Natalie took her shower. Eric didn't realize at first that her brothers had already started the notes, and started writing on a completely different thank you card. This year, I didn't write out exactly what he should write. He only saw the list of the presents they all got. I didn't make him write extra stuff, because frankly, he is eight years old and wouldn't be able to come up with that stuff on his own, so he merely wrote "thank you for" then listing what gifts he received.

Unfortunately for Natalie, she was the last one to write in the thank you cards, and Eric takes up a lot of space when he writes, unlike his brothers who write very small. On one card, Eric took up most of the second half that their older brothers had not written on yet, plus he signed his name in the space above his thank you note. She signed his name below, where it should be, and crossed out his name. I was happy with her "extra stuff" though. She was really able to convey her genuine gratitude without any help from anyone.

Now it's Patrick's and my turn. He gets to write our thank you notes, and I get to be crafty and dress up the front of the cards before we send them off. One more set of Christmas thank yous done--bring on 2016!

Goodbye, Anthony!

We went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner tonight, a farewell dinner for Anthony. When he is home, we like to cook or bake his favorite foods for him, and the same goes for taking him to restaurants that serve his favorite foods that he doesn't get to eat while at school. He had not yet had the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, so that became our last stop.

First I have to mention that in this first picture, Natalie was finally in a good enough mood to pose for a picture with her "favorite oldest brother" (as opposed to Alex being her "favorite older brother" and Eric being her "favorite younger brother"). She had tried to go swimming at our gym, and she only ended up swimming 100 meters before she decided she was too sore to swim any more. Patrick took her there this afternoon because she thought she might be feeling well enough to swim, and her going to swim practice would have delayed our dinner. Lifetime Fitness was a shorter trip that they could make earlier in the day. She wasn't happy with not being able to swim more, so I think that put her in a bad mood. Patrick and I feel powerless to help her with her ongoing back problems. With some effort on her brothers' part, they joked around with her enough that she finally got in a better mood by the end of the meal.

This is the picture I took when we first got to the restaurant, when Natalie was not in the mood for a picture. I posted this on Facebook also. Eric looks so tiny wedged in between his big brothers!

Eric had the kids' pepperoni pizza, and requested buffalo wings as an appetizer, to which his big brothers enthusiastically agreed. The waitress suggested an appetizer called "Buffalo Blasts" that are described as "Chicken, Cheese and Our Spicy Buffalo Sauce all Stuffed in a Spiced Wrapper and Fried until Crisp". She suggested that because it was bigger than the usual order of regular buffalo wings. They were delicious, and the boys were very happy with it. Alex had his usual Fettucini Alfredo, as did Natalie. Anthony had the Shrimp Scampi, and Patrick had the Factory Nachos. I ordered my usual Miso Salmon, but I was sorely disappointed when the waitress said that had run out of salmon. Natalie had wanted salmon also, the "Herb Crusted Filet of Salmon". I ended up ordering my old favorite, Chinese Chicken Salad instead.

For dessert, Alex ordered this delicious Strawberry Shortcake. The reason why we did not go out to eat last night was that he wanted to be able to get dessert, but since he knew he would have to run a mile at soccer practice this morning, he did not want to feel weighed down by a heavy meal the night before, so we went tonight instead. Alex got this dessert one time before, when it was just the two of us at The Cheesecake Factory. I shared it with him then, and I shared with him tonight. Even Alex could not finish this whole humongous dessert, even with a little help from me.

Anthony, Patrick, and Eric shared two pieces of the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake (with Anthony having his own piece). Natalie declined dessert, although she did order the Iced Frozen Mango for her drink, described on the menu as "Mango, Tropical Juices and a Hint of Coconut Blended with Ice and Swirled with Raspberry Puree". It was a rather large and colorful drink, and she was probably too full after her meal and that drink.

It was already past 8pm by the time we got home. Anthony then rushed off to see his friend Alejandro one last time. I said my goodbyes to him before he left since I knew he would not be back before I go to sleep tonight and then I would have to go to work before he wakes up tomorrow. His siblings also said goodbye to him for the same reason. I miss him already!

Photo with the Grandkids

We're back home now after visiting my family in Houston this weekend. We went back to my Mom and Dad's house on Saturday morning, because my niece Emily was back from spending time with her dad, which meant that we could get a photo of all of the grandkids. The girls in particular were not keen on getting their photo taken, but they knew it was important to their Lolo so they grudgingly agreed.

Dad was already sitting in a chair in front of the sofa, so the kids had to figure out where to stand with the sofa in the way. At one point, my sister Cynthia told her son Nick to stand up instead of sitting/leaning on the sofa so that Emily would not look like she was taller than he was. I chose this picture out of the several I took because Nick indeed looked taller than Emily. Interestingly, Alex is taller than Anthony, but he is not as much as it seems here. Since he is in the foreground, he looks that much taller than his older brother.

A few minutes after this picture was taken and the girls had gone back into hiding in the back bedroom, Dad said he wanted a picture with everyone, including all the adults. We did get a picture, but it was a low resolution photo taken with Melissa's old iPad 2 the she had given to Dad. I was happy with this photo with the grandkids.

Patrick grilled steak tonight, at Anthony's request, and it was nice to have a relaxed meal at home before most of us have to go back to school and work tomorrow.

Happy New Year 2016

When Patrick and I got up this morning, we noticed that Alex's friend Jeremy's car was in the driveway. That's how we found out that Alex and Jeremy were at our house. They apparently came home around 3 or so this morning, because Jeremy's house was full with other family and friends, so Alex wouldn't have had anywhere to sleep. Even if I didn't see him come home, I was happy that Alex was at home.

I had gotten chocolate chip muffins from HEB yesterday, so the kids would have something special to eat for breakfast (instead of cereal). Eric found the blueberry scone that I had gotten from Starbucks from my treat receipt, with Natalie's help, so that was what he was eating when I got downstairs. Patrick and I went out for a long walk at around 8:30am, then we started packing to go to Houston.

Anthony got home before noon. He requested that we eat lunch at Schlotzky's before heading to Houston. That is one of his very favorite places to eat, and he can never go there too much before heading back to school where they don't have a Schlotzky's. I snapped this photo of the kids all sitting at the same table. It's not often I get to see the four of them together anymore, and in another couple of years, Alex will be gone too. Alex caught me taking the photo and made a face, but at least he let me take the picture.

We had an uneventful trip to Houston. My mom had the kids' favorites ready--fish maho and arroz caldo. Patrick and Anthony had gone to pick up some Vietnamese fajitas (grilled pork) and dumplings from the local Kim Son restaurant, when I found the other three crammed onto a twin daybed in the back bedroom. They were watching another episode of Flash together on the iPad, so they had to get close to be able to see everything on the relatively small screen. It's a good thing that Eric is so tiny. I love it when my kids get along.

We got to Mom and Dad's at about 4pm. My sisters got there at around 5:30pm. We opened presents from Melissa. She is so good at picking out presents and she is so generous. She gave Patrick a bottle of wine for his birthday. She got me a warm vest that I can use when I run in the cold. Apparently her daughter Emily picked it out, and she definitely has good taste. Natalie got a Vera Bradley duffle bag. Alex got some shortbread cookies and $100 cash, which he already has plans for. Eric got a Lego Rey's Speeder set, a Star Wars calendar, Star Wars BB-8 T-shirt, and two Lego Dimensions expansion packs (Jurassic World and Ninjago). Anthony got a black leather-like jacket similar to the one that Alex let him borrow and that he says he almost didn't give back.

Dad requested some group photos, so we took some. We left around 7pm and we made plans to be back tomorrow. Emily will be dropped off early by her Dad so we can see her, so we will get a rare photo of all the grandkids together with Dad tomorrow. In all, it was a pretty good first day of the year. Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year's Eve

The repair guy got to our house nice and early--8:30am. He was there until around 2:30pm when we got home from the mall. The first thing he did when he got to our house was put up these plastic enclosures that I nicknamed "cones of shame" in order to contain some of the dust he would be making. There's was another one of these in front of and including the pantry. He didn't have to put one up in the kids' bathroom where the fifth hole was located because it was in the closet and therefore already contained. The floor was still very dusty from yesterday, but Patrick cleaned all of that up today. Natalie and I helped him get all that stuff back into the pantry and we were able to have some space to eat dinner tonight.

Patrick stayed behind at home with the repair guy while I went to the gym. I took this photo right before I started walking on the treadmill. I used my new running shoes (one of my Christmas presents) for the first time today. Aren't they a pretty color? There were a lot of people working off their holiday calories at the gym today, but luckily I was still able to use the weight machines that I wanted to use.

After I got home, the Alex, Natalie, and Eric were just finishing up their episode of the Flash, a TV show that they've been binge-watching. We then went to La Cantera Mall to have lunch at Grimaldi's. Anthony had spent the night at Alejandro's apartment, which was nearby, so they met us for lunch along with Alejandro's girlfriend Ellen.

I left my phone with Alex when I went to the bathroom because I had been texting Anthony from my phone and I wanted Alex to text Anthony back. He took this picture of Natalie. I love this because Natalie looks so animated talking about something or other. The picture is a little off-kilter because Alex seems to like to take photos that are tilted. I actually cropped the photo in order to focus on Natalie a bit more.

After having lunch, we walked around the mall a bit before heading home. I went to the grocery store to get a few things, like the frozen pizza we ate tonight. Anthony was going to stay at Alejandro's again so he could ring in the New Year with a small party. Patrick dropped Alex off at his friend Jeremy's house this evening so he could ring in the New Year with a few fireworks there. I gave him the usual warnings about being careful. The rest of us are just doing our own thing tonight.

We were watching TV together earlier. Now Eric is playing Lego Dimensions on the PS4 and Natalie is reading in her room. We already missed the ball dropping in New York City. We'll get together and watch the countdown at midnight on TV here shortly. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

After a low key day at work, I came home and we met Grandma and Grandpa at their house. Alex had gone to the Fiesta Texas theme park, so he was not with us. Unfortunately, he apparently came home shortly after we had left, and he could have let us know and we would have come back for him, but he seemed to want to chill at home, so he was okay with it. He watched the last two episodes of Dr. Who from this past season instead.

When we got to their house, Patrick and I helped Grandma set up her new Fitbit Charge fitness tracker. She has seen Patrick and I exercise to get fit and she wants to do the same. Good for her! We then set off for McAdoo's seafood in New Braunfels for dinner.

It was quite a popular place to be, and even though we got there around 6:30pm for our 7pm reservation, we didn't get seated on time. They only had a few tables that seated seven, and the one they were waiting for had a party that had been there for 2 1/2 hours. Grandpa in particular, was getting restless, but finally we got to sit down.

One side of the table was a booth-like bench, and Natalie, Grandma, and I promptly plopped ourselves onto it, while the "boys" all sat on the chairs on the other side of the table. Patrick mentioned there being a "boys" side and a "girls" side, and we were happy with that.

I took this picture with my phone while we were waiting. The building the restaurant was in looked like it used to be a US Post Office, and you can see the sign on the wall behind them that says "United States Post Office New Braunfels". The first thing Anthony said when he saw this picture was that he looks like a giant without Alex there! I really missed Alex being with us, and it wasn't for the height. :)

After dinner, some of us had dessert. Grandma (see above picture) had a complementary key lime pie for dessert. They put a candle in it, but she was glad that they didn't sing to her. She wasn't keen on the public display. The kids and I sang "Happy Birthday" silently. I told Patrick to get a picture since he was seated on the opposite side of the table. Natalie leaned her head on Grandma just as he snapped the photo. I like to think that Grandma had a nice birthday celebration.

Earlier in the day, Anthony took his little brother to Magnolia Pancake Haus for lunch. He met Alejandro, one of his one of his best friends there. Alejandro came with some other friends, and after lunch they went to the Laser Quest nearby. Eric has been wanting to play laser tag with his brothers since he first went there a year ago for a friend's birthday party, and I can feel his excitement in this photo that Alejandro sent me. Alejandro is Eric's "other brother", for sure. :)

Tomorrow will a pretty low-key New Year's Eve for us. Anthony is planning a party at Alejandro's apartment, so he will be gone. Alex is planning to ring in the New Year with friends as well. Luckily, the repair guys will repair the ceiling tomorrow and we will at least be able to ring in the New Year with our house again intact.

Holes in the Ceiling

Today was another busy day for me, with five scheduled pediatric ENT cases. I then took the opportunity to go to the gym after work, before heading home. It gave me some time to work off some of the stress of the last couple of days.

Patrick sent me these two pictures today. The first one is of the kitchen/breakfast dining area. They had to empty the entire contents of the pantry so that the repair guys could make a hole in the ceiling of the pantry. There was stuff everywhere, including the formal dining room. It took me a few minutes to locate the ice cream cups tonight when I wanted to eat some ice cream.

These are two of the four holes in our ceiling, located in the living room near the foot of the stairs. This is the location that had to be repaired a few years ago when the dryer vent got blocked and moisture started collecting around that area. They opened up the ceiling again to get at that dryer vent to clean it out. The bright side is that the dryer vent is now fixed and we can again use the dryer. The bad news is that now we have to get someone else to come fix the ceiling, because the guys that made the holes squeezed this job in to help us out and they won't have time to come fix the ceiling for another couple of weeks. Hopefully we'll get someone else to come sooner than that.

Along with sending me these pictures, Patrick texted me that he wanted to go out to eat, since obviously there wasn't any space to cook dinner or to serve it. We ended up going to Fuddrucker's tonight. Tomorrow we'll be having dinner with Patrick's parents to celebrate his mom's birthday. December is a busy birthday month for us.

Back to Work

No pictures today! I had to go back to work after the long holiday weekend. It's so hard to get up when it's still dark, it's cold outside, and the rest of the family is still snuggled in their beds. This was also a busy day for me at work, with six scheduled pediatric urology cases. I was exhausted by the time I got home around 4:30pm that all I could do was sit down and not move.

Patrick did not have a great day either. He got some repair guys to look at our dryer problem. Over the holiday weekend, he noticed that the water was leaking from the dryer. We haven't been able to use our dryer, but Christmas is not a great time to be calling for a repair job. The problem is likely somewhere along the path of the dryer vent, and when I got home today, he was talking to them about making holes in the ceiling to find out where the problem was. They're coming back tomorrow.

Other than that, the kids had another low key day, readying, playing video games, and for Natalie and Eric--going to the library. The whole family had lunch at Whataburger, and then Anthony went to visit his friend Alejandro. I didn't get to see him at all today.

Lego Dimensions

The kids got a Lego Dimensions game for the PS4 from Santa this year. Santa has a pretty tough job getting presents for the older kids. This year it was nice to get them a "toy" that they could all play together. This first picture was taken on Christmas Day and is of Anthony building the platform for the game with Eric helping.

First of all, notice that Anthony looks a little dressed up with a jacket on. That was his Christmas gift from us that we bought in Italy. We had been walking around one of the shopping areas in Rome and Alex wanted to go into the David Naman store. He found this jacket and he really liked it, but he decided not to get it because he really wanted us to buy him a Roma soccer jersey instead. Anthony noticed and he decided to try it on, too. Since he had not given us a Christmas list to speak of, I asked him if he wanted it for Christmas. He said yes, so we took it home with us, wrapped it up, and gave it to him for Christmas.

This is more of a closeup of the platform/portal for the Lego Dimensions game. What is cool about this game is that you have to build some of the objects you use in the game out of the included Legos. During the game, sometimes instructions will flash up on screen for a "rebuild" or building something a little different out of the same pieces. Natalie loves this part, which is great since she doesn't usually play video games, but because of this feature, she participates in this game. It's really nice to have something that all of the kids enjoy together.

This is Eric playing by himself this morning. Natalie was still in her room probably reading or listening to an audiobook. His brothers were still in bed asleep. He was up too early as usual, and this was keeping him quiet. The pile of Lego Dimensions Legos are still all over the floor. Patrick gave them ziplock-type sandwich bags to use for the pieces so at least the mess is somewhat contained. Santa did a great job picking their gift this year. :)

Wings

After quite a bit of begging and persuading from Alex, Patrick finally smoked some chicken wings in his smoker today. He went all out, with a nice dry rub on five pounds of wings. Alex invited two of his friends (Dylan and Jeremy) over tonight to have some. We used the same Frank's Wing Sauce in the Hot Buffalo flavor that we used a week or so ago with some wings that I baked in the oven and that the kids loved.

Anthony had to photobomb my photo of the wings, of course, but I didn't mind. He is only visiting us for such a short time that I'll gladly have him in every picture to remember his stay!

Alex was laughing at Dylan because Dylan's eyes were watering even though he didn't have any of the hot sauce on his wings (just the dry rub that Patrick had put on there). According to Alex, Dylan only had five wings, but he did say he liked them. Alex himself probably ate a couple pounds of wings, and Jeremy had quite a few also. The rest of us loved them too. That smoker has been the best Father's Day gift that Patrick has ever gotten! :)

Christmas Eve 2015

Before I go into today's events, I have to tell a funny story about Anthony last night. Patrick and I went to the gym to exercise from about 6-8pm. Patrick texted Anthony to tell Eric to take a shower and go to bed by about 8pm. Eric has been staying up until around 9pm or later every night, but yesterday he got up at 6am and Patrick said he had dark circles under his eyes, so Eric had to go to bed earlier. Since we had such a late lunch yesterday, we all ate dinner when we got hungry, so that was at different times. Anthony had put Eric to bed shortly before we got home. Anthony had not realized until then that we were not home and had not fed Eric any dinner. Anthony put Eric to bed without dinner! He forgot that Eric is not a big eater and will not necessarily complain when he is hungry. Since Eric was still awake when we got home, Patrick got him up to eat a sandwich, something small that would at least keep him full during the night.

Christmas Eve morning started out like any other day during the kids' vacation. I had scheduled hair cuts for Natalie and Anthony. Originally, Alex was also scheduled, but he wasn't sure of his plans, so he wanted his hair cut last week. Natalie doesn't get her hair cut very often because her mama is too cheap to take her when all she gets is a simple cut, but which costs me a lot just because she has so much hair. This time, at least, she brushed her hair before going to the hair salon, and this time, she asked for a little more to be cut--like about five inches. She was pleased that this time, Ryan said that she was tall enough (she liked hearing that) that she could sit down while he cut her hair. In the past, she has to stand up because her hair would hit the chair in an odd place and make it difficult to cut straight. I also bought her some additional hair products to hopefully keep her hair from frizzing as much.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed until it came time to get ready for church at 4pm. Since the kids all dressed up (more or less), I wanted to finally get a good picture of the four of them for our Christmas Card photo. I decided early on that our Christmas cards would be late this year because I wanted our traditional card with a photo of all four kids together. This will probably have to change in future years, but for now, I insisted on getting a picture of the four of them. Interestingly, Anthony is the one that was complaining, although in the first picture I took, Natalie looked very annoyed. I don't actually expect them to smile for the camera. For example, I actually think Alex looks more handsome when he doesn't smile. I think Natalie, however, looks prettier when she smiles. What I don't want is for them to looked annoyed or angry in the photo, which Natalie looks like when she doesn't smile.

We wanted to go to the overflow mass in the St. Francis church hall instead of the church itself because Natalie's and Eric's piano teacher was playing at that mass. We got there earlier than we usually do, but later than we should have for a Christmas Eve mass (about 3:45pm for a 4pm mass). Patrick dropped us off first so he could park way out on the soccer/baseball field and we could find seats (if available). There were no seats except for one or two here and there. We wanted to stay together, so we refused some offers for the one or two seats here and there, until they put out some more chairs right in front of us, and I convinced Natalie to sit down since it would be better for her back. She took Eric with her so she wouldn't have to sit alone. The rest of us were right behind them anyway.

Eric and I went to say "hello" to his piano teacher before the mass started. We lucked out and our main priest was officiating at this mass AND he had a shorter homily. He even mentioned that we probably would not mind a shorter homily, and we were out of there in about an hour.

As we were leaving mass, Alex asked if we were going to have any outside lights up for Christmas. Patrick has been busy and didn't make time for putting up the outdoor lights, but the boys offered, so I told him to let them do the lights themselves. We think they did an excellent job! I took this picture as proof, and we encouraged them to do the outdoor lights in the future.

I took this photo tonight of our new tree with the stockings by the fireplace, all ready for Santa's visit. Tomorrow will be quite hectic and exciting.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I didn't take any pictures, so I got a screenshot of the official picture of the new Star Wars movie from their Facebook page. The kids have been chomping at the bit to see this movie, which came out last Thursday night. A lot of the early showings were sold out or almost sold out. I even thought briefly about seeing it on the evening of my birthday, but the showings would have been too late for Eric, even though last Friday was basically a party day for him at school. Alex also said that we likely would not be able to sit together in the crowded theaters, so we waited for Anthony to come home. Of course, I had to work Monday through Wednesday of this week, so we couldn't see the movie when I was working. Today, I was able to get off work early, so we made plans to see the 12:30pm showing at the Regal Huebner Oaks theater.

There was plenty of room in the theater. We could pick and choose where we wanted to sit plus we could all sit together. The kids sat down without asking for snacks, so I think they were a little excited to see the movie. When Patrick mentioned getting some snacks since he had not had lunch yet and he was hungry, they all got up and left me to save their seats.

The movie was better than I had expected--lots of action mixed with some humor. We all enjoyed it, especially Eric. I loved looking at his expressions during the movie. We're all already looking forward to when the next installment in the series come out in May 2017.

After the movie, some of us had expected to go to Panera Bread for a late lunch, but Anthony was never a big Panera Bread fan, and he said he wanted to go to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) instead, so that's where he went. He and Alex split two types of pizza. Natalie only ordered a caesar salad. Eric had his usual Fusilli Alfredo from the kids' menu. Patrick had his usual chicken quesadillas, and I had my usual mushroom and spinach flatbread. Everyone was too full to go to Brindles afterwards, so we just went straight home. This was such a great day. I had to go to work, which was short and sweet, but then we had a lot of family time the rest of the day.

Welcome Home Dinner

I didn't take any pictures yesterday, plus I was on late call, so I didn't even get home until around 6:30pm. All of that equals no blog post. They are redoing the floors in the new building operating rooms again, so we are down to half the staff and half the amount of operating rooms we usually run, so I was afraid we would be super busy, but it wasn't too bad. No surgeons yelled at me, and that makes for a good day.

As for the rest of the family, Anthony saw his friend Alejandro when he came over late on Sunday night. He then saw his friend Jake yesterday. All the kids saw the first three Star Wars movies (Episodes IV, V, and VI), and when I got home, they were all watching the last one in the game room.  Alex's "friend that is more than a friend but not a girlfriend", Coral, was over watching with them earlier, but she left before I got home. Patrick was busy buying Christmas gifts for his side of the family, then he smoked some pork loin for dinner, so he was pretty busy all day. After dinner, Anthony left to spend the night at Alejandro's house.

Today was a shorter day for me, but still busy at work. Anthony didn't get home until after I got home from work, which was around 4pm. He had tried to go see his good friend Maddie, but that didn't work out. Alex played video games with at least one friend here at home, then went to play soccer with friends at McAllister Park. He didn't get home until we were about done with dinner. Natalie's friend Monse came over for a visit and she had dinner with us. Patrick spent all day smoking some pork ribs for dinner. We took a walk together in the neighborhood after I got home from work.

Grandma and Grandpa came over early for dinner so they wouldn't have to fight as much traffic. We had a nice welcome home dinner for Anthony. Anthony got to taste Patrick's smoked barbecue ribs for the first time--he loved them, of course, and he also got to have one of Patrick's margaritas. He was as horrified as Patrick usually is that Eric eats his ribs with ketchup instead of barbecue sauce. Alex came home when the rest of us were finishing up with dinner, and even after he ate, there was still quite a bit of leftovers, so we could easily spare some for Grandma and Grandpa to bring home with them. Grandma thought she was getting spoiled with the doggy bags we keep sending with her to have for lunch the next day.

After dinner, Eric wanted to play Star Wars Battlefront on the PS4. Here he is on the sofa and I love how he and Anthony both have such intense looks on their faces while they are playing. Later, Alex took a turn after he took a shower. Eric gets to go to bed early tonight because he has been going to bed even after 9pm but still getting up by 6:30am or even much earlier. That boy needs some more sleep!

My sister Melissa texted me this photo tonight. My mom actually took a picture with her iPhone. Growing up, my dad was always the one taking pictures, and I never thought Mom would take pictures, but here she is taking one with a camera phone, no less. Apparently, Dad was looking at the bill from when he was in the hospital, but he is wearing two pairs of glasses. Mom hasn't answered my text yet, but I wonder if Dad is wearing two pairs of glasses because he forgot he was already wearing a pair. Poor Dad!

That's enough rambling for tonight. I'll have more stories to tell tomorrow. We're going to see the new Star Wars movie after I get home from work.

He's Home!

Anthony is home!!! That is the big news for today. Patrick drove to Houston yesterday afternoon so he could pick up Anthony this afternoon and not have to drive back and forth in one day. He stayed at my sister Cynthia's house, but didn't see her because she and my brother-in-law John were out at a neighborhood party. Patrick got to see my nephew Nick and niece Aly, though, and took them out to dinner. This morning, he was out for a walk when Cynthia got up, so they barely saw him. Anthony took a while in Customs so they didn't actually leave Houston until around 4:30pm after Patrick took him to Smashburger for food (one of Anthony's favorites).

Anthony left Venice yesterday and had an overnight layover in London. He said he didn't sleep at all there, on purpose, so he would be super tired by the time he got on the plane going to Houston. He said he was able to sleep on that plane for eight hours.

Patrick missed seeing the Packers game because it was at 3pm and he was waiting for Anthony at the airport then. Natalie, Eric, and I were with him in spirit, though, wearing our Packers T-shirts and Eric wearing his cheesehead, just like last week. Eric was still wearing his cheesehead when he greeted Anthony.

Eric was so excited to greet his brother that he had to run out to the garage. Anthony still had to grab his suitcase and come in, but Eric ran up to him and hugged him. When they got inside, Anthony immediately took his laundry and put a load in the washer, then Eric hugged him again (see photo above). Eric and I had a full day today that started very early.

Eric got up around 6:30am this morning. I had asked him to knock on my bedroom door when he got up because I wanted to spend some time with him and because I wanted to know when he got up. I originally wanted to go to the gym when I got up, but I was not ready to go to the gym at 6:30am. By the time I was ready, around 7:30am, I realized that if I went to the gym then, I wouldn't get home until 9:30 or so, and Eric would be super hungry by then, so I decided to take him to breakfast instead. Eric's choice was Starbucks.

Eric placed his order all by himself. I only said "tall" as the size drink he wanted. He got everything else. He proceeded to sit in one of the comfy chairs instead of one of the tables, and pulled up one of the side tables so he could use that as a table. He then ate his blueberry scone over his bag, just like I've made him do since I started taking him to Starbucks, except now, he doesn't leave crumbs all over the floor. In fact, he got very few crumbs even on his lap.

After Starbucks, we went to HEB. I needed to get some muffins for everyone else to eat for breakfast (Natalie, Alex, and Alex's three friends that had spent the night), plus some supplies to make food for Anthony to enjoy when he got home. I decided to make Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars and Stuffed Jalapeños for tonight, and have the ingredients to make Banana Pudding later in the week.

I let Eric play on my phone, so I put him on the cart so I wouldn't have to worry about what he was walking into or where he was while playing on my phone. The cart was getting full with everything arranged around him so he wouldn't be too crowded, and I wished that I could take a picture of him distracted by the phone in the middle of that, but I needed my phone to take a picture. I asked for my phone back to take a picture, and of course Eric decided to pretend he was a Jedi with a lightsaber in this picture.

I went to the gym shortly after we got home and unloaded the groceries. When I got back, I took Alex and two of his friends (Jeremy and Christian), Natalie, and Eric to Torchy's Tacos in Lincoln Heights and then to Paciugo's for gelato. Oh how I've missed gelato since our trip to Italy! I started cooking soon after we got home. It took me from about 4pm to about 7pm to make the two dishes plus clean up. I had just taken the stuffed jalapeños out of the oven when Patrick and Anthony got home.

Since then, the sound of lightsabers and gunfire has filled our home (from the Star Wars Battlefront PS4 game). There's been laughter shared by siblings, bonding over smoothies (Alex couldn't wait to make smoothies for Anthony), and conversation. All is well in my world tonight. Anthony is home.