Christmas Holidays 2010

As usual, we all had a great time visiting the old homestead.  As usual, too, we had a very busy December.  Now, as you know, I'm no slouch when it comes to using many words where only a few might do, but since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will abbreviate my post by using pictures.

Here, then, is our holiday in living color starting with QT's company's family Christmas luncheon, where the kids and I enjoyed getting our faces painted.


That evening, we traveled to North Houston to QT's brother's house to celebrate an early Christmas with Grandmas T & R.


A few days later, we celebrated Christmas (again) at home with the kids.  We told Pumpkin that Santa Claus delivered their gifts early because he knew we were going to be traveling.  They were both excited, and they got some good loot too!


 After we were done opening gifts and getting dressed, we went outside to enjoy the day.  Pumpkin and Giggles were excited to try out their new helicopter cars, I was excited to try out my new camera, and QT was excited to watch the trains go by.


Our arrival in Ldo was mostly uneventful.  We arrived just after midnight on Christmas day, opened a few gifts, visited with the family for a bit, unloaded the car, then went to bed.  That weekend, we enjoyed the 1st of Pumpkin's various birthday celebrations with QT's dad and family.


The rest of our trip was mostly spent shuttling back and forth between "home base" (i.e. Mom's house) and my brother's house.  When we weren't at one of those 2 locations, we were at the park or at the museum or dining out.  In this collage, you'll also see pictures of Pumpkin's 2nd birthday celebration at my parents' restaurant.  Unfortunately, he had a very painful ear infection on the day of his dinner party so he was a bit down in the dumps.  Like a trooper, though, he refused to postpone his shindig.  :)

When the Going Gets Tough...

...the tough go home.  This Christmas, with so many amazing deals available online, I decided that I would try to do the majority of my shopping from my computer.  As many of you know, it's not always easy to go shopping with 2 little ones in tow.  In fact, I'd rank that particular unpleasantness right along with having a tooth pulled, haha.  Worse actually...because I can cope with dental procedures as long as necessary, but my ability to cope with meltdowns and whining in the middle of a crowded store definitely has a half life.  Besides, I never know what to get QT's parents or mine, and wandering aimlessly around the mall during Christmas shopping season (or anytime really) in the hope that inspiration will strike is more than I care to bear.




Enter Shutterfly.  QT and I haven't lived in the same town as our families since before we were married.  It didn't really matter when it was just the two of us, but once Pumpkin came along, it became important to me to foster our link with the folks back home.  Shutterfly fit that bill for me perfectly.  Not only is it a great place to store my pictures, share them with our loved ones, and order prints, it's also very handy when it comes to finding the perfect gift for the person who has everything.  With just a few free minutes, I can easily go online and choose a funny Halloween picture to make into a nifty mouse pad for QT or choose 12 pictures from my collection to make into a snazzy calendar for Grandma Tone or order a cute coffee mug for Beautiful Grandma (she loves those) or create an awesome snapbook of Pumpkin's 1st trip to the beach for Grandma Q.  So many options!  Such fantastic deals!  So many Grandmas!

So little time!!

There are just a few days left to have your custom photo gift shipped standard in time for Christmas (a bit more time if you choose 2-day or next day shipping).  If you've been sitting on the fence about what to get your loved ones, you'd best hurry along.  Free shipping ends tomorrow.

Santa Sighting

Last Thursday, Pumpkin threw up at school.  He's doing much better but still gets a stomachache whenever he eats so I didn't send him to school today either.  Instead, I took the kids to Bass Pro Shops in Pearland to check out the Winter Wonderland there.  The store was just opening so there was hardly anyone else there besides us and the employees when we arrived.  The kids enjoyed the aquarium and riding the elevator over the waterfall and all the cool stuff there is to see.  Eventually, we made our way to the Winter Wonderland area, and the kids sat down at one of the coloring tables.


Imagine my surprise when Santa Claus walked in right by our table!  Pumpkin was agog.  It was like a rock star sighting for the Kindergarten crowd, haha.  Giggles maintained her poker face--she didn't know who the bearded dude was, after all.  Santa stopped to chat with us, and he invited the kids to go see him at his house to let him know what they want for Christmas.  I wasn't aware Santa would be there...heck, we weren't even supposed to be there...so I didn't have my camera.  I also hadn't dressed the kids for pictures.  Fortunately, Bass Pro Shops takes and prints the pictures for free, and who cares what my kids were wearing.  It was Santa, for crying out loud!  We even got coupons for free kids' meals at their in-store restaurant, which was cool.

Pumpkin was so excited to finally see and talk to Santa that he decided he'd also write him a letter.  There weren't any other kids around (we were the last to visit Santa that morning) so he ran back up to Santa to hand him his letter in person.  Then, he colored a picture for Santa and wanted to give him that as well, but he settled for putting the picture with his letter and putting both in Santa's mailbox.  Then, for good measure, we went back to say goodbye to Santa when we were finally ready to leave.  Santa was a good sport throughout and kept chatting with the kids and waving at them and laughing "HO HO HO!"  I'm kind of glad we hadn't seen Santa anywhere else before today because it was a lovely experience for all 3 of us.  No crowds, no rushing, no stress.  Thanks, Bass Pro Shops.

Pumpkin's Letter

I took pictures of the kids' letters before they "mailed" them.  Pumpkin wrote his own letter, and then he and I helped Giggles write her letter (I did the writing, and he suggested a few things, but Giggles came up with the last 4 items on her list on her own).  Cereal!  HA HA HA!











Giggles' Letter

What Part of Forever Don't You Understand?

Back in the summer, when the kids and I were squatting at my parents' house in L-do while our house in Denver sat vacant, and QT was living out of hotel rooms all over the country, and our stuff was sitting in a warehouse near Dallas, the 3rd Twilight movie Eclipse opened in theaters.  That week, I happened to catch a couple episodes of "Twilight's Got Talent" on George Lopez, which featured stars from the movie performing tricks and stuff.  It was pretty funny!

One of those episodes also featured a song from the movie written and performed by an artist named Cee Lo Green.  I'd never heard of Cee Lo Green before I saw him on the show, but I was mesmerized.  Here was this big ole' tattooed guy with an awesome voice wearing a chain mail helm on his head and accompanied by a sexy all-woman band, who appear to actually be playing their instruments!  And...the song was awesome and lovely....and has been haunting me since I heard it that night.



In fact, I loved the song so much that I went out the very next day to see the movie (the first Twilight movie I've actually seen at a theater.)  Turns out Cee Lo Green was/is in Gnarls Barkley so I had at least heard him if not heard of him.  And the backup band is called Scarlet Fever, and they are real musicians.

Months later, I still haven't gotten that image or that song out of my head.  I don't own any of the Twilight movies or soundtracks (and only one of the books, which I bought at a discount store), but because of that song, I am definitely going to buy this movie when it comes out on DVD...and maybe even the CD soundtrack to boot.  I just love watching this video.  :)

Christmas Cookie Recipe


I won't be in Denver to attend (my) moms group's annual cookie exchange this year.  In lieu of sending over some of my "famous" Mexican wedding cookies, I'm sending over another recipe that is sure to delight.  Enjoy the party, ladies!!

p.s. Perhaps this will help to explain why I always found it so difficult to finish my cookie baking every year. ;)
Love and miss you all!


Tequila Christmas Cookies

1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup (two sticks) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit (dried cranberries or raisins)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 cups all purpose flour
1 bottle chilled Tequila

First, sample the tequila to check quality.  Take a large bowl.  Pour another 4 ounces tequila in a measuring cup and drink to ensure it is of the highest quality.  Turn on the electric mixer.  Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.  Add one teaspoon sugar.  Beat again.  At this point, it is best to make sure the tequila is still OK.  Pour another 4 ounces and drink.

Try another 4 ounces tequila, just in case.  Turn off the mixerer thingy.  Break two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit, picking the frigging fruit off the floor.  Mix on the turner.  If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, shust pry it loosey with a drewscriver.

Sample the tequila again to check for tonsisticity.  Next, sift 2 cups of salt or something.  Check the tequila.  Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.  Add one table.  Add a spoon of sugar or somefink.  Whatever you can find.  Greash the oven.  Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.  Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the teqwiuilia and make sure to put the dirty stove in the dishwasher.

Cherry Mistmas!  And remember, limes are for wimps!
 

Turkey Pizza

Haha, I was just reading my last post.  What a wacky dream!  Guess that's what happens when you're feverish.  Well, thankfully, the shot I got at the doc's office worked, and I was well enough to partake in my own birthday pizza party festivities with the family (and regular doses of Ibuprofen to keep my throat from giving out, of course ;).  We all had a blast trying out the Playstation MOVE game that I won online, and everyone danced and sang and ate cake 'til we dropped.



This is the song that Pumpkin and his cousin D danced together.  They looked soooo cute!  I could kick myself for forgetting my camera.  I used my sister's camera to take a few pictures, but I was unable to upload them before we left.  Hopefully, I'll get copies soon.  The game we played (Singstar Dance) came with microphones and MOVE controllers so that 4 of us could play together at the same time (2 teams, each consisting of 1 dancer & 1 singer).  Even the littlest ones were able to play along.  Giggles danced a mean Supremes, haha.  We all had so much fun with it that I contemplated buying a Playstation of my own to play this game at home, but in the end, I decided against it and left all my MOVE loot at my sister's.  The PS is too expensive for one thing, and my kids are really just too young to benefit from having another video game console at home.  And really, I'm just not that into video games.  But Giggles had so much fun playing that, as a compromise, I decided to look for Wii game titles that the whole family can enjoy rather than just buying games for Pumpkin to use on his own.  More on that later.

Thanksgiving Day with the family was nice.  Not much to tell.  Turkey, bread, potatoes, stuffing, etc.  All in all, it was a very nice visit with the family.  Not too short, not too long.  QT had to jet off to California or somewhere right after we arrived, but he made it back in time for Thanksgiving Day.  Thankfully.  :)

Bizzaro Dream

Woke up this morning with the strangest feeling that I wasn't where I should be.  See, I woke up in the middle of a weird dream.

 In my dream, we were in the cafeteria at Pumpkin's school, and I'd received a packet from the school administration.  In the packet was a letter telling me that Pumpkin had passed some sort of test "with flying colors" (which is a highly technical term often used in official school documents, and my 1st inkling something wasn't quite right, haha).  Anyway, the letter went on to explain that Pumpkin had been found to have genius tendencies and was being put into a special program.  At first, I was very proud of Pumpkin, but upon further inspection of the packet, I realized that what I had been given were detailed class and activity schedules including all his electives already pre-selected for him for the rest of his school career.  "In preparation for what?," I wondered in my dream.  Right when I was trying to decide whether I should be aghast or not, I woke up.

And I still haven't figured out if this was going to be bad for us or not.

Note to self, remember to keep Pumpkin out of the hands of any super secret government institutions that might whisk him away at first sign of his genius.  Oh...and let him build a robot dog if he wants.

Night Sweats and Nightmares

Strep Throat.  As you can guess, my "good" feeling was short-lived.  As before, I woke up that morning covered in sweat and feeling mighty cruddy so I once again sent Pumpkin to school with the neighbors while Giggles and I paid my doctor a visit.  I opted to take the injected antibiotic rather than pills because I doubted I could swallow the pills anyway, but I just didn't want to wait 10 days to get better.

After my visit, I dropped Giggles off at a daycare then came home and lay down to rest.  My neighbor, God bless her, called me in the afternoon and offered to pick Pumpkin up after school. I agreed and lay down again.  Next thing I knew, Pumpkin was home.  He was excited to finally be visiting Giggles' daycare with me.  Don't ask me why, but that boy loves drop-in daycare centers.  When we lived in Denver, he often asked me to take him to the one at the mall, haha.  After a light dinner, I had enough energy to do a few chores around the house, but all too soon, my energy started petering out so I quickly bathed the kids, locked the dog up, and we all went to bed.

That was Tuesday.

Repeat wash and rinse for Wednesday.

Repeat for Thursday....except I was finally able to take Pumpkin to school myself.  I was planning on keeping Giggles home but quickly realized I wasn't quite up to the task after all.  Hello, drop-in daycare!


More importantly....tonight is the memorial mass for the daughter of a friend of mine from Colorado.  This is a picture of the little girl, taken earlier this year.  She and her family moved to Texas a few months before we did, and the little girl died as a result of of an auto accident near their home in The Woodlands.  Reportedly, the other driver (the one who caused the accident) was drinking prior to the accident. 

My friend and I were in the same mom's group back in Denver, and we, along with about a dozen other moms, were pregnant at the same time with our seconds (or thirds in some cases).  She and I hadn't managed to meet up since moving to Texas.  We were casual friends at best, but I'd hoped we would see them again at some point and that our daughters could play together every so often.  I'm ashamed that the first time we'll say hello again will be as we say goodbye to her sweet baby. 

Rest in peace, angel.

This Always Happens

The day before QT left on his week-long trip to Denver, I started feeling odd.  It started with some pressure in my face (from sinuses) and then I started feeling a bit weak.  By Sunday night, I was feverish, my throat hurt, and I ached so much all over that I could barely stand upright.

I'm home alone with the kids, so of course I still have to do what needs to be done.  Kids need to eat, and they poop, and the dog has to go outside.  They both got cereal for breakfast, and the neighbor was able to take Pumpkin to school, thank God.  Poor Giggles, all she had to eat during the day was some leftover mac-n-cheese and a TON of Cheerios.  Oh, I think I was able to get her a yogurt drink out of the fridge too, haha.  I was too nauseated to eat, but I forced myself to drink water and eat a cracker every so often.  After we picked Pumpkin up from school, I made myself drive to Whataburger to get the kids some food.  I was in so much pain, I wanted to cry, but I was afraid they wouldn't get to eat otherwise.

They gobbled down their food, but later that evening, Pumpkin asked me if I felt "good enough to make us something like dinner?"  My poor babies!  I have been so useless all day.  After dinner, and as soon as I could rationalize it, I bathed the kids, took the dog and the trash out, and put everyone to bed, myself included!  It was about 7:30 by the time I was done, and Giggles fell asleep instantly.  Pumpkin, on the other hand, was up for a while.  I think he was worried about me.  In his prayers, he asked God to make his mommy get better, and when he saw me shivering uncontrollably, he scooted closer in bed to help warm me up and then offered to bring me another blanket.  So sweet!!

It's nearly midnight now.  About an hour ago, I woke up completely drenched in sweat.  I literally flicked a bead of sweat off of my forehead.  Ugh.  I realized that I felt better, not quite as achy, so I guess the fever must have peaked after we fell asleep.  I debated just going back to sleep, but instead, I got up and showered.  And, I really do feel much better.  I'm even able to sit at the computer, ha!  Going back to bed now.

Making Pizza


 The kids and I made some pizzas for dinner today as a surprise for their Daddy.










This is the cheese pizza.  The other was pepperoni.

While our pizzas cooled, we enjoyed a Black-eyed Peas video on Pumpkin's computer.  Check out the cool light-show speakers I got at Target.









Earlier this week, or maybe it was last week, we were outside coloring with sidewalk chalk, and Pumpkin thought it'd be nice to draw something special for me...on my car.  It's cute.  Sadly, the rain washed it off yesterday.

To The Pain

Chock full of energy one day, I decided to tackle some heavy lifting around the house, and I somehow managed to seriously injure my right foot.  Perhaps it was when I slammed the ladder down on my (previously unremarkable) bunion.  Who knows.  It's a mystery.  Anyhoo, I'd been taking a Zumba class at the neighborhood exercise center since we'd moved here, and I didn't return to finish the week thinking I'd take a couple days off and return the following week.  WRONG.

So wrong.  By the end of that week, my entire foot hurt so much that I was hobbling around barely able to put shoes on, much less walk in them.  Even my other foot had started hurting by then since I was basically hopping around on it all day trying to stay off the injured one.  In desperation, I ordered some weird rubbery foot pad on Amazon and felt stable enough a few days later to attempt to continue my ambitious organizing/unpacking project.  DUMB - SQUARED.

While carrying a box and overcompensating for my still unhealed foot, I twisted my back.  ARGH!  With back pain, I would normally just pop a few pills and keep going, but as luck would have it, I was all out of meds.  And I hadn't yet found myself a local doctor.  So, I had to drag myself (and Giggles) to a clinic near our neighborhood, talked to a nice doctor, and got my drugs.

All that happened the week before Halloween.  Believe it or not, I'm still not able to walk properly on my right foot.  I'm walking well enough around the house, but I'm still using the weird rubbery foot pad thingamajigy to go out because I'm afraid of ending up stranded at the grocery store halfway through the bread aisle and not being able to get back to my car.

So...I'm feeling a bit bored and restless.  I've already watched Seasons 1 & 2 of The Closer (on DVD).  I've already watched a movie (Date Night, which was surprisingly funny), and I've already read a couple of new books and even reread a couple of old faves.  I look forward to regaining my mobility SOON.  Next week will be the true test because QT's going out of town for the week.

My Little Golfer


Pumpkin was very excited when he learned that our new neighborhood had its own golf course.  When I found out that they were offering semi-private golf lessons for kids, well, I had to enroll him.  He was excited to go, of course.  He chose golf over soccer and basketball and all other sports being offered in our neighborhood.

In fact, he loved his golf lessons so much that after only his 2nd lesson, he started asking for his own "gear."  (that's golf clubs for those of us not in the know ;).  So I got him his own set of clubs...er, I mean, gear.  And he looks so impossibly cute carrying his little golf bag around, hehe.  He's really excited about playing golf and can't wait to go out on the real course.  I tried explaining to him that neither his dad or I play, but he is insistent that his dad can take him.  It's sweet how he thinks his dad can do just about anything.

Whoop!!

I just found out that I finally finished paying off my undergraduate student loan.  Literally. Just. Found. Out.  Purely by coincidence that I found out too or I would've just kept right on sending payments every month without realizing.  I think my loans may have automatically gone into deferment the first time I enrolled in grad school so I'm sure I missed out on paying at least for a semester or two, but I started paying again once I realized what had happened.  My point is that I've been sending my little $40 to whomever for almost as long as I can remember.  Well, knowing what many of you know about my memory, it probably is as long as I remember and then some, haha.

Our New Life

Just thought it was time for me to actually say something about our new lives rather than writing outdated stuff.  A few posts back, I wrote that our beloved dog Sunshine was killed while staying at my parents' house.  I still miss that dummy, and I know the kids do too.  They both still talk about him at random times throughout our days.  The good news is that Grandma T just got the kids a new puppy.  The bad news is that it is going to take the better part of a year to get this puppy remotely close to being as well-trained as Sunshine was.  Still, I'm excited to meet the little guy.  He's staying with Grandma T until we can pick him up.

Of course, Pumpkin started Kindergarten this year.  He had a rough first week.  Turns out a little girl at his table teased him all week long about (of all things) his water bottle, and she apparently had all the other girls at their table joining in the teasing too.  Probably about all sorts of stupid, inconsequential things, but it mattered to him.  I didn't even pick up on it until the weekend.  We were at Target, and I started wondering why Pumpkin was being so insistent on getting a new water bottle.  When he finally told me, I nearly blew it off as no big deal until he quietly admitted that the girls' teasing made him "feel bad."  That week, another little girl told him on the playground that she would only be his friend if he would get a better haircut because his was "dumb" or something like that.  WTH?

I miss his old school where we never encountered problems like these.  Unlike last year when his class was 90% boys, girls in his class this year far outnumber the boys so I'm starting to wonder whether all this drama is because of the girls (y'know, a girl thing).  From where I'm standing, it sure seems to be.  I asked his teacher to move Pumpkin away from the mean girl and place him at a table with at least one other boy.  She did, and he seems a lot happier now...even though it turns out he's now at the table with the girl from the playground.  {sigh}  Thankfully, she doesn't seem to bother him as much though he still says she's not that nice.

Every so often, I ask about the other little girl, and he says that he never talks to her, even on the playground.  My goal now is to get him to understand that he can still be nice to that little girl even if she isn't nice herself.

Update(s) Below

I'm slowly but surely going back in time to post "updates" on our move from Denver to Houston.  Here in our new house, I'd finally gotten my computer hooked up, Internet going, etc.  A couple days later, I decided it was also time to finally upload all the pictures that had been accumulated in our cameras all summer long plus the pictures and videos from my camera phone.  As (bad) luck would have it, not 2 days later, my computer experienced a memory fart, and all those beautiful pictures and funny videos were lost forever.  I went on facebook to save some of the ones I'd posted there, but it was a fraction of what I lost.  Sadly, my absolute favorite videos of Lys and Pumpkin dancing at the local HEB are among the missing.  I never sent them to anyone else because the files were too big so the only place they'd existed was on my phone...and now nowhere.  Oh well.  I'm bummed, but what can one do.

Anyway, if you're tuning in now, please scroll down and start where our countdown to Houston begins.  That's where I'm doing most of my updating these days.  Soon, I may even actually start posting current stuff.  ;)

Day 60: Moving to Texas

We closed on our new house today!  Pumpkin is very excited about it, and we're all looking forward to finally settling down again.  Sadly, we'll be doing so without our constant companion Sunshine.  He was involved in a very unfortunate incident at mom's house and died while we were in Houston for our closing appointment.

Pumpkin handled the news surprisingly well...leading me to believe that he really didn't get it.  I fully expect him to bring it up again at many random moments to come.  We'll likely look for another dog sometime after we've fully settled into our new house, but Sunshine was one-of-a-kind and will be sorely missed by the kids and by us.  :(

Day 40: Visit from our Friends

Shortly after we arrived back in Texas from our packing trip, our really good friends from Colorado surprised us with a visit.  It was really great being able to introduce them to our family and show them around town.  Pumpkin was delighted!  Their visit coincided with the monthly wine dinner held at my parents' restaurant so Jan and I left our munchkins with my nieces and nephews at home and enjoyed a fun (and boozy) night of laughs and prizes sans kids.  Soooo nice.

Day 6: Cooking Class

We arrived in Texas and hit the ground running!  The girls were signed up for a cooking class so I signed Pumpkin up to go with them.  He wasn't the minimum age for the class, but I figured he could handle it.  Plus, his older cousins would be there to help him out if necessary.

The girls told me later that an older boy was teasing Pumpkin on their 1st day, but they "took care" of the problem.  Hehehehe.  It's nice having someone watching out for you.  ;)

Day 2: Moving to Texas

Day 2: Barring any more unplanned trainspotting stops, our goal is to actually get out of Colorado today. Last night, we took a detour to see the RBBB Circus Train in Colo Spgs. Then this morning, we decided to visit the Pueblo RR Museum on the spur of the moment. We saw some pretty cool trains including this CO-WY loco and an experimental levitated train (TLRV) from the 70's. Picture of that one to come. :)

Sep 29, 2010: As promised, here are more pictures of that weird floating contraption we saw in Pueblo.





  




Day 1 of Leaving Colorado: The Countdown to Houston Begins

Day 1: Who knew it would take us 3 hours to clear out of our hotel suite? And that was just the precursor to vacating our own house. It was past dinnertime by the time we were ready to leave. We were so tired after packing and cleaning that we could've just stayed in town 1 more night. We decided, instead, to drive a bit further out and spend the night in Pueblo & be that much closer to our destination.

We're Movin' Out

After a month of madness and mayhem, the movers arrived to pack up our stuff and lug it off.  In a span of 3 days, everything that had made our house a home was gone leaving only an empty shell behind.  And our cars, which we weren't moving to Texas right away.  It was weird.  Much weirder than it felt when we left Houston.  I think knowing that we would definitely never be moving back to Denver contributed to the general feeling of weirdness...and overall sadness.


That weekend, we had a farewell party with our mom's/play group.  I'd started the playgroup when we first arrived in Denver, and since group activity was no longer what it had been when our kids were younger, and we were leaving, I'd decided it was time to pull the plug.  So, the farewell party was as much for the group as it was for us.

Back in the Saddle Again

We've been back in Colorado since Mother's Day.  We flew back, and our trip went surprisingly well.  The last time I flew anywhere with the kids, Giggles went on as a "lap child," and she was squirmy and restless and kicking the seat in front of us the entire flight.  Since she does very well in her car seat, I thought that it might help for her to have her own seat on the airplane too so I elected to buy her a ticket rather than take her on as a "lap child" this time.  Of course, taking a car seat on board meant I'd have to lug it around with us during our layover at DFW.  It was going to be worth it in my opinion.  It didn't even matter that the bathrooms nearest our gate at DFW were closed for repairs or that I had to tote said car seat and a full backpack while pushing Giggles in her stroller past 20 gates to get to the next closest bathrooms when Pumpkin suddenly announced at lunch that he had to go potty.  And never mind that I ended up changing Giggles' diaper in the airport lounge because I was afraid to take too long at said bathroom in case our flight left without us.  In the end, all that hassle was well worth it because both kids behaved impeccably during our flights.  In fact, they earned praise all around from flight attendants and passengers alike, and they were even given a couple of fabric sticker airline wings as a prize for their good behavior when we arrived at DIA.  Sure, her seat cost me an extra $300, and I still haven't regained feeling in my left arm from holding a car seat aloft while jogging through the cavernous DFW airport.  But I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Anyway, once home, Pumpkin jumped right back into school, and life has kinda sorta gotten back to normal for the time being.  Yesterday, Pumpkin had an appointment at the Children's Hospital Dental Clinic to repair half of the approximately 9 cavities he'd been diagnosed with at his last dental check-up.  He was given a sedative called Versed, which was supposed to relax him as well as cause him not to feel or even remember any pain.  Well, it didn't work.  The doctor told us that Pumpkin behaved well and was very cooperative during his procedure, but when we got home, Pumpkin was able to recall everything that had happened including that he had been in so much pain that he nearly cried.  My poor baby!  Did I mention that Pumpkin tends to be a bit high strung.  Most likely, he was too anxious during the procedure for the medicine to work properly.  And, he still has to return for the 2nd half of the procedure in a few months.  Hmm, guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

For now, we're gonna concentrate on wrapping things up at home.  Pumpkin's last day of class is on Thursday, and his end-of-year program takes place on Friday.  The movers arrive the following Wednesday to start packing up our belongings then return on Friday to pack up the trucks and head out to Houston.  "It" is getting closer, and I still haven't given myself permission to think too hard about leaving.  Soon.

Welcome Back, Kiddies

Surprisingly, when I asked Pumpkin if he wanted to go back to Colorado and return to school, he said yes.  I'd have bet money that he would've elected to stay in Texas and be with his cousins until we actually "moved" to Texas.  I would've lost.  Anyway, I was glad that he wanted to return because he was able to spend some time with his friends before we had to go for good. 

Shortly after we arrived back in Colorado, it snowed!  It wasn't quite enough to go sledding, but I made sure to take the kids outside to play since we are not likely to have an opportunity like this again once we move.  We didn't see any of our friends right away, but we ran into a few of them at a community fair we attended in nearby Beacon Point so that was nice.  Thinking about it now, I suppose the reason we didn't immediately jump back into things (or call any of our friends) was partly because I felt a bit weird that we were only going to be seeing everyone just to say goodbye.  As stated so eloquently in "The Gilmore Girls" (and I'm paraphrasing) there's nothing good about goodbyes.  They should be called badbyes!"




In honor of our upcoming move, we celebrated by eating Texas-shaped sandwiches.

The Low Down

It's been nearly 3 weeks since we arrived in Texas for our quarterly month-long visit.  I haven't posted much because it seems that we haven't really done all that much, but in fact, we're "going" from morning to night, mostly staying busy playing, going out, or just hanging around with the gang. 

Pumpkin mostly hangs out at his cousin D's house all day, every day, M-F.  I finally just started leaving his bike there so I wouldn't have to keep toting it back and forth everyday from "our" house to theirs.  One fine day during our 1st week here, I took the 3 kids (my 2 & D) to the lakeside park in D's neighborhood.  Being a weekday, the park was pretty much deserted, which was both eerie and cool.  The boys really wanted to go down to the lake to throw rocks, and of course, Giggles being Giggles, she walked right into the lake up to her knees just because she could, haha.

My kids are loving it, but they really just aren't used to this much hoopla.  Two weeks ago, after we'd been here just one week, Lis had a dance competition in Houston so the "neighbors" and the Grands were all gone for the weekend.  At the same time, my brother and sister-in-law went to Dallas for a concert, and my other sister and her fam were in San Antonio for my nephew's medical appointment.  Leaving me and my kids home alone for the weekend.  I'd planned to go to Houston for the dance-off but changed plans at the last minute.  Instead, I took the kids to a local Earth Day festival, which we all enjoyed, then we came home and all 3 of us took a nice, long nap!

Last week, I drove to San Antonio to attend a librarian conference with my sister and her librarian buddies.  I'd heard her talk about these conferences before, and here was this great opportunity for me to finally go to one too.  Whoop!  Neither kids nor rain nor...more rain was going to keep me from the conference. 
Bonus! ~> Not only was I able to crash with the ladies' in their hotel room(s), but one of my sister's friends was also able to snag me a free admission pass for the conference from one of their vendors.  Whoop whoop!  I had a lot of fun hanging out with my sister and her friends, and I made off with some EXCELLENT free books and loot!  And, I even got to take a picture with Super Scholastic Girl, hehe.

This weekend, Lis and her fam are headed back to S.A. for another dance competition.  I don't think we'll join them there either.  I'd kinda like to, but I understand hotels are sold out because of Fiesta.  There's a hay ride or something going on in town this weekend, a fund-raiser for autism.  Perhaps we'll do that instead.

Anyway, in other news, QT was recently promoted within his company, and we are moving back to Texas!  Yee-haw and Whoop-de-doo!!  Pumpkin is thrilled...as are all his cousins (about the move, I don't think they even realize it's tied to a job promotion, haha).  QT and I are pretty excited too.  We always planned to return, and it's much better when someone else picks up the tab.  ;)

Even more exciting is watching Giggles continue expanding her repertoire of words and signs and just learning more each day.  It turns out...she...likes...to..dress up!  Beautiful Grandma bought her a new outfit with a flouncy skirt, and Giggles immediately had me put it on her...along with about half a dozen hair bows, haha!  And the other night, she was crying but was instantly placated when B.G. offered to paint her fingernails, haha.  Oh my!

Test Posts from Texas

Pumpkin is LOVING this blanket of the Texas flag!  We've already requested one of our own from Grandpoo, who bought this one.
And this one was not taken in Texas.  It was taken shortly before we left Colorado.  This is a picture of Giggles' first time ever riding in a "big girl" car seat.

Easter with Friends

Thought I didn't post any pictures or blog about it, last year, we celebrated Easter with our good friends (let's call them the Rrrs).  The Rrrs accompanied us to the Colorado Railroad Museum for a train ride and egg hunt a week before Easter then came over to our house on Easter Sunday for a lovely lunch and an indoor egg hunt (b/c it was actually too rainy to go outside).  This year, we, once again, met up with the Rrrs for an Easter outing...this time with my mom's Bible study group.  Each of the moms pitched in some Easter eggs and yummy treats for lunch, and we all had a wonderful time.  The day was beautiful so we hung around at the park for hours.  Needless to say, the kids had a blast (and were nice and exhausted by the time we got back home).


And The Hits Just Keep Coming

In November, I told y'all about dear friends of ours who were facing possible foreclosure of their home while their little girl Avery fights infant leukemia.  They managed to raise enough funds from good people such as yourselves to stave off foreclosure for the time being, but they're nowhere near out of the woods yet.

Before I go any further, I'll go back a bit and tell you about some of the things they've gone through since Avery's diagnosis.  For starters, the entire family came down with H1N1 for which they had to take Tamiflu, which is unbelievably expensive.  They've also had to deal with bronchitis and strep, and they were unable to spend last Thanksgiving with their family because of a case of mono.  Both Avery and her older sister Emily were wearing casts on their legs at one point because of injuries received in separate incidents.  Melissa's mother, who has been helpful and instrumental in the way only loving grandmothers can be, fell and broke her hip, was hospitalized, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, underwent surgery, was hospitalized again, etc.  Meanwhile, Kelvin (Avery's dad) had to take a job out of state because he couldn't find enough work here so my friend Melissa was left alone to care for their 4 kids, take Avery to the hospital for her treatments, and even help care for her mom, who lives about an hour away.  Even their fairly new dishwasher broke down and had to be replaced!  Talk about bad luck...this is country song bad!

As I said, the hits just keep coming.  The latest:  Their home was burglarized!  Three nights ago while the family was at home sleeping in their rooms, these brazen thieves broke a window in Kelvin's truck, used his remote to open the garage door, entered my friend's home, and made off with thousands of dollars worth of tools and Melissa's purse, which had her ID, ATM card, cell phone, Avery's prescription card, the babies' WIC checks, and all their April grocery money!  The bastard scum went into little Avery's room where she slept and even raided the family's freezer and stole their roast beast!

The problem now, of course, is that Kelvin is unable to work without his tools, and there is no telling what the insurance company is going to cover or how the family is going to get by in the meantime.  I thank God that no one was harmed....though I'm left to wonder why bad things keep happening to this wonderful family and hope and pray that this will be it for them for the rest of their natural lives...and also that they win the lottery. :)

I'm reposting the slideshow from November in case any of you would like to do something to help my good friends and need to know where to send your donations.

(Here's the slideshow. To see the full screen, click on the little square within a square below the video.)


P.S. If any of you know Oprah, please ask her to give me a call so we can chat about the Spicers. ;)

Midnight and All is Well

A couple of weeks ago, we held a small gathering at our house to celebrate QT's birthday. No jello shots this time, but there were still plenty of laughs to be had by all. Unfortunately, as our guests started leaving, one of the kids started coughing...a croupy kind of cough. Nooo!

I called my friend a few days later to ask after her daughter, and it turns out the girl, who suffers from chronic respiratory problems, was put on steroids and missed about a week of school due to that virus. That very evening, Pumpkin started up with a croupy cough of his own. Even though it was just a mild case of croup (cough, runny nose, hoarse voice, but no fever), I kept him home from school the next two days to be on the safe side. He seemed fine by Saturday so he and his dad went out to visit the model train store, have lunch, and just enjoy some guy time together. I guess somewhere along the way, Pumpkin must've been exposed to an allergen because, that evening during dinner, his left ear suddenly started getting red and swollen. It was also hot to the touch, and Pumpkin complained that it hurt when I touched it. Then, just as suddenly, it went away! So we gave him a bath, loaded him up with Zyrtec, and put him to bed, same as any other night. A few hours later, at around dawn, he started coughing terribly then he sprang up in bed crying and gasping and grabbing at his mouth.

As luck would have it...or perhaps by God's good graces, I'd decided to have him sleep with me in my room so that I could keep an eye on him so I woke up as soon as he did. I'd also (again, by sheer luck or what-have-you) read up on the latest in croup treatment after we'd put the kids to bed so I knew exactly what to do. I "calmly" gathered him up and ran downstairs and out the front door with him to breathe in the cold air, which is what the "experts" said was the best thing to do (one study found that hot bathroom steam didn't work very well after all). And don't worry, he didn't get resfriado. We didn't actually stand around outside in our pajamas. I held the door open, and we sat on the sill, and I covered Pumpkin with my coat, which fit like a full-size Snuggie only warmer.

Once he was all nice and medicated and breathing easier, I noticed that his left eye was swollen and puffy. Was it mere coincidence that it was on the same side as the ear that had swollen the night before? I think not! Might this weird recurring allergy have something to do with the sudden worsening of his previously mild croup? In my reading, I came across something known as spasmodic croup, which is a recurring fever-less croup that appears to be triggered by allergies. It seems odd that I hadn't heard of this before, but it seems to fit.

So Pumpkin missed school again on Monday and then again on Tuesday because I'd kinda sorta re-injured my back when I carried him down the stairs. And then on Wednesday, which was to be his last day of school and the day of his classroom Easter party, school was cancelled on account of snow. Darn!

You'll be glad to hear that Pumpkin is doing better. In fact, we all are. I haven't yet attempted to go anywhere with the kids that might require any heavy lifting of strollers or pulling of loaded wagons, etc. Perhaps tomorrow when the weather is nicer, we'll try leaving the house. Or not. Whatever.

In other news this month, we visited the Zoo, celebrated QT's actual birthday, went to the park, and played with mice and dogs. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.