Sleeping Beauty... uhhh... I mean, Snow White

Austin at 10

How I love this kid!

Austin's talents: One of my favorite things about Austin is how he pats my back when I get him up from a nap. It is a "good job, mom" pat. He also does a big excited face and kick when I come into the room. How can you not pick that kid up and kiss him? He is great at clapping his feet. He loves balls and is a fast crawler. He has two bottom teeth and two teeth (both on one side) on the top. Austin is very good natured. The last half of the week was a puke fest at our house. I felt so bad when I heard Austin awake on Friday morning and there he was grinning and kicking with puke all over his sheets, blankets, and himself. I guess his "easy-going" attitude was not such a good thing in this case.

New Floor

We (finally) decided to get new flooring in our downstairs entry/living/den area. The kitchen and bathroom are still tile. This is something we've been considering for a long time. I love it and, like a lot of home improvement things, wish we would have done it long ago. Our old light, light beige carpet could not handle my kids' messy habits nor my frequency of cleaning. The new wood is "pecan" and it is the color of dirt... perfect!

After a month of use, we think its great. I've always been a big fan of the look of wood, so that wasn't a worry, but I was wondering if the kids would be bothered about the "hardness" and its been fine. Of course, we did a few "tests" to come to this conclusion. It definitely looks cleaner. Sippy cup drips actually get cleaned up (I am sorry. There is no such thing as a "dripless" cup. If you disagree, please post the brand.) We also did a "dance floor" test ... and after many concerts, we concluded it is a definite improvement there. And we had a "wind-up toy" race and it passed that test too. George's Tripp grandparents have the tradition of giving windup toys for Christmas, so we have quite a few unique ones.

(Lucy is a bride, in case you are wondering)

And here is a look at George's latest exercise program (the bar and the dumbbells). Personally, I think it fails this test, but got outvoted.

Elise's treats

Lucky she hasn't figured out how to open these (yet)!

Sparkly Elise

One of Lucy's favorite birthday gifts was a makeup set from Uncle Benji. Parents never give those cool "messy" kind of gifts and the kids always love them. It has "nail polish" (sticky gluey stuff with glitter), lip gloss and eyeshadow (and all of those items in a variety of pinks). Lucy loves painting my toenails (for real) and occasionally, I'll let her do my "real" makeup, so she's had a little practice. She gives me a purse with "money" in it and I pay my $5 for a full beauty salon treatment. Screamin' deal.


With this new makeup set, she has a new client: Elise. And Elise sits very still while she does it. This is quite incredible if you know Elise well. Lucy takes her into my bathroom and shuts the door (which a parent knows... that always means trouble) and they emerge looking beautiful. The first time this happened, I peaked my head in to check out the masterpiece. Of course, the beautician was a little annoyed to be disturbed. "We need a little privacy," she said. I looked over at the happy client and she had the nail polish painted all over "non-nail" parts of her body (arms, legs, and head). I asked Lucy why she painted Elise and she said she wanted to make her "sparkle". In the video, you can see Elise's sparkly head. Ahh... what fun!

Purple Heart Hero

Today was quite the day. And thanks to a "purple heart hero," it was a lot better than it could have been.

It was a morning of errand running and by the end, the babies were pretty crabby. I picked up Lucy and Elina from preschool (for you SA people - it is just of I-10, inside loop 410). The babies had fallen asleep and all of a sudden I hear that sickening thumpity-thump and smell burning. I am at the top of the overpass (which is pretty high), just getting off I-10N and going to 410 westbound. That was the first blessing - it is 40mph there because of that curve, so I wasn't going near as fast as normal. I pull off the road the best I could and take a look at my thrashed tire. I didn't have my cell phone (not that it would have done a ton of good, but it is comforting to have it) and tried to stay calm (since there was fast and heavy traffic very near). The second blessing was that we had a YW activity on car maintenance not two weeks ago, so at least "tire changing" was a little fresh on my mind. But, thank the Heavens, a truck pulls over and out jumps a nice man to help. He introduced himself as a "wounded soldier from BAMC". He helps me find the tire (which involved moving a van seat). I look around and notice his truck license plate has a purple heart and "Navy" is written across the top. I look at my helper and see a "purple heart" award made into a necklace. I started to get a little emotional. He starts coughing and coughing and has to put on a mask he pulled from his pocket. "Burned Lungs," he says to me. He's a young guy. I was so touched that he pulled over to help a frazzled mother when I am sure he had many reasons not too (his health being one of them).

Now I'm on a search. I've been looking all over the internet for any information on my "purple heart hero". I wished I had something in the van to give him right there, but now I really want to send him a card to tell him how much his act of kindness meant to me. I am sincerely grateful for people who are God's angels on the earth: selfless and willing to help clueless strangers stranded on the freeway.

Fundraising... already!?!

On Lucy's 2nd day of school, fundraising packets were distributed to everyone. I was warned by the school and former Discovery School families that fundraising is a big part of the school. Still... on day 2!?!

So...if you would like your very own Entertainment book for San Antonio restaurants/attractions, let us know. This is actually one thing that I think is worth buying. If you would like wrapping paper that is 5 times the normal cost for half as much paper, we have that too.

Austin's new friend

Austin's "brother" keeps him entertained.

And yes, "cleaning the garbage can does need to be on my "to do" list this week.

Doesn't this remind you of Deb/Flo on Finding Nemo? Don't remember that part? Ok... here's the sound bite (can't find a video clip).

Why are we doing this? Oh yeah... its "FUN"!

George had a 3-day weekend (LOVE that!!!) so we thought we needed to do something fun to celebrate rather than spending all of it "laboring". We had a few plans on Monday, but decided on a trip to Costco and then a visit to Sea World or another pool in the afternoon. Yep... Costco makes the "fun" list. Their samples and lunch afterwards are hard to beat. Well... we drive a bit and find an empty parking lot... closed. Oops! So we change plans and drive another half hour to the outlet malls, planning to go to George's favorite park afterwards. We thought the babies would take a little cat nap on the ride up. Nope. It was our shortest (<1 hour) and cheapest (<$50) trip to the outlet malls on record. Who wants to shop with bawling babies and the other child needing to touch every item we pass and make a comment about it? (Wonder who she gets that from :)

So we jump back in the van to try again to get the babies to nap. We drove to Gruene so I could pick up another plant hanger at this cool rod iron store. Sadly, it was out of business. We drove to Subway and the dear worker wasn't listening to a word I was saying... choosing random toppings and sometimes double of them. This was not a huge deal, but did cause me to shake my head and chuckle. Finally....we made it to Landa Park (Austin had slept for about 15 minutes and Elise was still at zero) and ate our picnic. Lucy got bit by fire ants, so of course, there was quite a bit of wailing (understandably) but it was so loud that it could be heard across the park. I am speaking from experience because I had to make a few trips to the van to retrieve forgotten items and dig for money. With only $2 and a checkbook, we tried to find something to relieve us from the heat and find a fun activity. We bought drinks and then for some reason that I still cannot comprehend, I thought a popsicle would be a good idea. Probably one of my worst ideas to date. I'm not sure what I was thinking... it was like I adopted all three of my kids yesterday with no motherhood experience whatsoever. Of course all three of them wanted it and it melted extremely quickly. Elise had a death grip on the thing, but not on the stick part... it had to be on the sicle part. She was dripping with rainbow colored stickiness and so was the stroller. She SCREAMED at anyone who wanted a lick, which of course, got Lucy crying again. When it broke in half, you'd have thought the world was ending.


Then we decided it would be "fun" to go on the paddle boats. After much rearranging on the boat, I held both babies on the back bench while Geo paddled and Lucy "steered". The babies cried for 25 of the 30 minutes. Not sure why... it was 100 degrees, they were stuffed in life jackets and couldn't move their heads or arms, they were starving, had soggy diapers (I only had 2 so I had to ration), and slept for a combined time of 15 minutes. Hmmmm.... It really was quite comical if we didn't get so many looks from strangers wondering why we were torturing our children. Since this trip was unexpected, we didn't have the camera... too bad because it would have produced some funny pictures.

Ok... let's back up a few days. Look what a fun afternoon we had on Saturday. And all in our backyard...

We ended the day with a great game of Killer Bunnies with our friends.

Ummmmm..... I'll take more of "Saturday", I think. However, Monday's "bawl fest" was probably more memorable and certainly gave us a laugh.

Blog Talent Show

Austin's getting faster and faster. Now he can keep up with the "party" if it moves into the other room.

Here is Elise showing some of her talking skills.



Starring Lucy as Kim McAfee

crispify

Oops... forgot to post the links... it should work now.

One of my buddies from the USU days has this great recipe blog. Usually I just salivate over all her delicious creations, but I decided to try this one... it is a crispy french toast. You really need to click on the link and look at the yummy pictures. Here is an even fancier version. Please do not look at my picture and think, "Gross!"... the picture is included here to prove I made it. Look at this fancy raspberry tart thing too... doesn't that look good?

I am not a fan of eggs so eggy french toast is sort of disgusting. Therefore, I was pretty excited to try this out. And it turned out great! I am too grumpy to be a good cook in the morning, so we had it for dinner. I used texas toast for my bread {please don't wince, Natalie :)} and my "crispy" mix included toasted coconut, pecans, and corn flakes. We used bananas for the topping. It got me thinking... would chocolate lovers like cocoa crispies french toast? What else could I use? I was telling my sister about all of this and she said one of her buddies used to make something similar, but with regular coconut and they called it "Hawaiian French Toast." Don't you think that would be divine with mangoes or pineapple or something "tropical" as a topping? And then for a different dinner, maybe I could make a "crispy" version of grilled cheese. oooo...my brain just started a-going...

The coolest thing

This was our conversation at breakfast this morning:

Lucy: Today I am going to learn Spanish. {This has been THE most exciting idea about school for her. Motor skills (PE) is a close second.} Sarah's mommy is the teacher.
Me: Right. That's pretty cool.
Lucy: Yeah, I guess that's cool. But its not the coolest thing in the world.
Me: Oh. So what is the coolest?
Lucy: (immediate answer) When you drive up to a window and someone comes to it and hands you a pizza through it. Now THAT is the COOOOOOOOLLLLEST!!!

First day... yay!

Lucy started preschool today. I'm embarrassed to admit how much thought I gave to where she should go... its PRESCHOOL of all things! San Antonio has all-day kindergarten, so I felt she needed something to transition her from "me all day" to "someone else all day." Big jump, don't you think? Anyway... this is what we ended up going with... Discovery School. It is T/Th from 9-12. She has been so excited!

Friday was a "meet-the-teacher" day. It was an hour long and in addition to meeting her teacher, Mrs. Barrera, she also met Ms. Lisa (the teachers assistant), a few new friends, and the class rabbits, Opal and Tee-tee. It was mainly a day for the kids to look around the classroom and explore. Lucy and her good buddy Elina sat at the table and did some coloring. Ms. Lisa asked if they were good friends and if they lived near each other. Lucy replied: "Yes. We live so close that I don't even have to wear my seat belt!" Great. All my secrets will soon be revealed. All those times when I've said, "We're just going around the corner. Just sit in the back seat" are coming to haunt me. And I'm sure this is only the beginning...

She also asked Ms. Lisa when I was leaving (kind of in a whisper). I guess that's how you want it, right?

Today was the actual first day of school. Lucy woke up so excited... it was quite comical, but great. I stole a tradition from my friend of letting the child pick out a "first day of school" cereal (price and sugar content are thrown out the window). Lucy picked a package of 8 small boxes so she could "have a new cereal every day." I had no idea how exciting this would be. I think that tradition will be a keeper. No fake smile for this photo.

little love note

The whole way to school she chattered (this is normal) but it was more fun as she was asking about all the different parts of school. It brought back my only solid memory of kindergarten when Lucy asked me "What do you think Ms. Lisa will be wearing? Do you think it will be a different outfit than Friday?" And I remember asking my kindergarten teacher to wear a specific levi skirt to school because I liked it so much. (And being disappointed because she wore a "different" levi skirt than the one I was thinking of.)

Yay for school!