Collared shirts

Brenna announced this morning that she wanted to wear her clothes again, specifically she wanted to wear a dress. I pulled out a navy jumper and blue collared shirt and held it out for her. She became angry, stating very clearly that she was done wearing the collared shirts. She wants to wear her own clothes.

I explained that the school's dress code says solid color collared shirts paired with navy, denim, khaki, or black pants/shorts/skort/skirt/jumper. I think she thought she was being pretty good with the novelty of "uniform", but she's done now. She's too independent.

Thankfully tomorrow is the last Friday of the month - Free Dress Day. And Monday is a holiday. Now, what to do about Tuesday. I'll worry about it Tuesday.

Brenna is FIVE!

Today Brenna turned five years old. She knows that her party was her "big gift" this year, but we still gave her a few small items.

She really like her "Under the Sea" music birthday card from Aunt Debbie.

Here is her new dress from Aunt Debbie.

Cameron gave her a movie - and we gave her a few new books.

No more babies in our house. We're officially school girls now.

First Day Update

Everyone had a great first day of school! Brenna said it was fun and she met a new friend named Parker. Of course to hear her say it, the name sounds like Pahkah. (She has trouble saying R in words, Bryan calls it her Boston accent.) She ate lunch in the cafeteria, with lunchroom monitors helping the kindy kids open their lunches. She had "block" (P.E. on rotation with music, art, and library) and told us all about waiting at the table in the cafeteria for the after-school van. Once she got back to her after-school care, she got into a squabble with co-Queen Bee Taylor. Ms. Pat said it best, "It was an emotional day for everyone."

Cameron really liked her teacher, Mrs. E. Her comments included, "She's strict, but not mean strict. She didn't yell at us one single time!" Apparently Mrs. E. is firm, but kind and Cameron really responded to that. I hope both of them keep that attitude all year long. Cameron received her spelling words for Friday's test. (The hardest word is scissors.) They also carry a planner now, where they write down what they did today and I have to initial it every night.

Brenna brought home a little "certificate" for "First Day of Kindergarten" (great, more paper to keep), a little Beary book she colored, cut and put together, coloring sheets, and her PIN number for buying lunches. Last year it took us three weeks (once we knew to ask) to get Cameron's PIN. Go figure.

Mommy is the only one with homework! Each girl brought home the RED ENVELOPE which is how the school sends home paperwork that demands parental attention. Inside each envelope was the "I have received the school handbook" form to sign. Now, of course, the handbook is NOT given to us - only the URL stating the handbook is available online. They need to change their paperwork to reflect this; it should state "I have been made aware that the handbook is available online." Not, I have received the handbook, because I haven't. I hate signing that paper when it's false.

We also received the Family Application for Free and Reduced Price Meals. Breakfast is available for $1 and lunch is $1.75, but if you have foster children or a family of 4 earning less than $38,203, you can apply for $.30 breakfast and $.40 lunch. Clearly stated on the application is the sentence, "You or your child(ren) do not have to be a U.S. citizen to qualify for free or reduced price meals." I suppose it is addressed to legal residents, though in today's political climate that sentence can easily be misconstrued.

There were a few comments about the girls' backpacks. Brenna's is a light blue backpack with a matching frog lunchbox from Target. Cameron's is a leopard print messanger bag from The Children's Place. It has a matching lunchbox also and for her birthday she's asked for (and will receive courtesy of Aunt Lisa) the matching binder.

Today they wanted to be dropped off in the car line. Cameron said she would make sure Brenna got to her classroom, but I was a little sad. You can only walk them in this first week. I thought about walking them to school this morning, since I am taking the morning off to pack for my business trip at noon. But they wanted to go in the car line. We discovered that the Odyssey will not allow you to open the side sliding doors unless the car is in park. (Makes sense, but I hadn't thought about it.) I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the door open! Because last year in the Jeep I just coasted up and kept one foot on the brake while Cameron jumped right out. So even Mommy is learning.

NASA

It's incredible to me that people think we should cancel the Space Program and not continue with our exploration, that it costs too much money. NASA receives less than 1% of the total federal budget and by far they have the highest return yield on any federal investment. Without even knowing or thinking about it, people use NASA "spinoffs" daily, from debit cards to cordless tools to portable defibrillators. How about satellites? Satellite radio, telephones, television, and weather radar.

What about the value of photos like this one of Hurricane Dean from the STS-118 Endeavor mission? This photo was not the purpose of the mission, but people respond better to visual resources. We would not have such detailed hurricane tracking information without weather satellites.

School Time Again

After the longest summer break in 15 years, we returned to school this morning.

Cameron starts 3rd grade this year, and Brenna (gotta love that 8/30 birthday) is in Kindergarten.

We met the teachers on Friday. It's a crazy chaotic 45 minutes! We left the house at 8:25 a.m. and had to park 3 blocks away and stand in line just to get into the building. Thankfully, a neighbor told us that the classroom lists were posted after 5 p.m. Thursday night, so we already knew which room and teacher to visit. We picked up pre-ordered pre-packaged school supplies in the cafeteria and went 'round to both classrooms. Last year Cameron became really good friends with about four girls in her 2nd grade classroom - and yet none of them are together this year. What are the odds? (Seriously - four classrooms, five girls, you would think at least ONE would be in her class.)

Brenna knows one little boy from PreK who attends our school. During Kindergarten round-up, the form asked if she knew anyone who would be in Kindergarten. I filled it out with K's name and requested that they be in the same class. So of course they are not. (Can you see me rolling my eyes?)

This morning we all were up and ready early. Really early. All summer I've tried to have them up this early so I could be at work on time. Sheesh. Brenna told me that she had butterflies in her stomach, and she wouldn't eat much of her breakfast. I had her sit right down and color me a picture of the first day of school. (She drew a red building.)

But once we got there, Cameron happily greeted the returning teachers and even introduced Brenna to the P.E. teacher and the Librarian and the Music teacher. Brenna very solemnly shook their hands and answered their question. (And what is your name?) After we dropped off Cameron, who outwardly had no issues going back to class aside from Mom & Dad standing there talking ["Moommm.... " (unsaid: get out!)], we took Brenna back to the Kindergarten classroom.

Her teacher showed her where to put her lunchbox and hang her backpack. She gave her a name tag. We found her pencil box and some coloring pages, said good bye, and left. She seemed just fine. Anticipation is most of the nerves. I think she'll be just fine once the class activities begin. I'll be surprised if they do more than get familiar with the classroom, get to know the rules, the other children, and maybe some A-B-C's.

I'll update tonight after I pick up everyone from after-school care.

Birthday Bash

For Brenna's 5th birthday we gave her a horse-riding party. We explained that this would be her last "big" birthday party; that future parties would be somewhat smaller with a few friends as Cameron has had the last two years.

This year we went to Charlotte's Camp, which has an air-conditioned party room and covered riding area for the children. We spent various parts of Friday and Saturday planning and preparing. Naturally Saturday morning it rained.... and rained... and rained.... about 3 inches here at home, but when I called CC, the owner reported not a drop all day! Thank goodness.

Everyone who RSVP'd attended- so we had a full house with 16 kids. Brenna loved the horses - had no qualms whatsoever with petting them, feeding them, and riding. The time flew by - it seemed we had just arrived and it was time to stop riding and move indoors for the food, cake, and presents.

Bryan spread out a feast of cold cuts, cheese, and rolls; chips, guacamole, and salsa; and a homemade trail mix. The trail mix disappeared immediately. (see post below for recipe) I made the cakes - after making one and thinking about the number of people attending, I quickly made another. I have no talent for decorating cakes, even something as simple as this drove me up a wall. Perhaps I shouldn't say I have no talent - I lack the patience.

Opening presents became a whirlwind of paper, bags, children, and noise, as the guest swarmed around the birthday girl. I felt like a parrot repeating, "sit down, back up, sit down, back up."

Brenna and Rebekka were so cute as they opened presents together.

I have so many great snapshots it's impossible to put them all here. I tried to upload to Picasa to make a slideshow album, but the computer froze up every time and frustrated me to where I don't care to do it anymore.

Trail Mix

The big hit at Brenna's birthday party this afternoon was a homemade trail mix. Everyone arrived, scooped trail mix into a cup with their name on it, and head outside to look at the horses. The trail mix was gone before everyone arrived! I had packed the ingredients to make more, but left the bag at home because we had so much food.

So here is the recipe for the Birthday Party Trail Mix.

Kix cereal (also can use Cheerios or other crunchy cereal)
Thin Pretzel sticks (I broke them in half)
M&Ms
Marshmellows
Raisins

That's it. Simple and easy. At school they added peanuts, but Brenna doesn't like nuts. Just mix this all together in a big bowl and scoop into baggies or cups to serve.

Guess what we got!

It's a Certified pre-owned 2007 Honda Odyssey Touring in the light blue color. We looked at the Toyota Highlander and the Honda Pilot also, but after driving my mom's '05 Odyssey and my sister's '06 Odyssey, we knew this was the car we wanted. (Even though we didn't want to seem like we were copying...)

Bryan gets huge kudos for staying on top of Cars websites and tracking down not one, but two pre-owned Odyssey's with all the features we wanted, within our price range. The first one we were going to pick up from a dealer in Corpus Christi, but they called while Bryan & Dad were headed down and told them the dealer sold it to someone else the night before. Bryan found the same model, etc. vehicle at a dealer a little closer to home (an hour vs. 4 hours drive) and got the same price, same deal, same interest, etc. We didn't get to pick the color, but after seeing it and driving it, I'm really pleased with it. It's a soft blue, not bright or garish. And it will easily distinguish OUR Odyssey from the others in the family (white and silver).

We've told the girls that we hope to use this minivan to take some road trips! Oklahoma. Nashville/Memphis (to meet some friends), and the girls both want to go to Washington D.C.
To be fair, they want to go because I told them it would take two days and we would "picnic" in the car - eat prepacked lunches vs. stopping at Sonic every four hours.

So wave if you see us on the road!

Showered with Surprise

We spent the weekend in McKinney for Amanda's surprise bridal shower. I think the surprise was definitely on us when we drove up and Heather & Cindy (friends from Oklahoma) opened the front door! I don't know why I didn't realize they would be there. They laughed, because naturally they thought Debbie or Brad told us they were attending. (Um, that would require this little thing called "communication." LOL!)

Everybody was peeking to see when the bride would arrive.

Amanda looked completely surprised when she arrived to find Debbie's house filled with friends from her job at the Art Institute of McKinney (AIM) and another best friend since middle school (co-host) who drove up from Austin. Happily, Amanda's mother had already come to town under other pretenses, so all the family attended.

So even though it was a quick trip there and back, we had a really nice visit.

Tropical Storm Erin

I still think the over-hyper weather reports are nauseating, but we did get a fairly heavy bit of rain and loud thunderstorms dragged across our area today from TS Erin. We collected about six inches of rain throughout the day.

Here's a view of Horsepen Bayou as I drove across it on my way to pick up the girls. All the bayous and drainage ditches are full right up to the uppermost edge. Actually, Horsepen is just out of its banks.

We had one fatality caused by this TS at the local grocery store not far from our house; the weight of the rain collapsed the roof of one of the loading docks killing one and injuring another.

Weather Reports

It's gotten to where a person can hardly watch the weather report on the television news. Everything is a BIG DEAL. Seriously some of these meterologists appear to be so hyped up they don't know what's real anymore.

Most of this summer we've had rain one day or another. It's been wonderful - a delightfully cool summer, my electricity bills haven't topped $300 (yet), the water bills are surpringly low, and the flowers we planted back in March are still blooming. (Completely unprecedented.)

Then last week our rain departed and a great big ol' high pressure system came and sat over us. This brings heat. The usual and regular August heat - with high temps in the upper 90s, heat index in the shade of the 110s. The heat that reminds us to drink more water, stay indoors during the greater part of the day, and don't get in the car until you open all the doors and turn on the air conditioning. You know - normal summer weather.

Well, you would have thought that we were all going to die. The weather reporters were so intense about our "Killer Heat". We had this "killer heat" for about a week. We usually have it for about 3 months. How is it possible that they forget each year what it feels like?

Sigh - now we've entered the busier part of Hurricane Season and the meterologists are whipped into their excited frenzy. This morning we learned that KHOU greats David Paul and Neil "I'm a hurricane watcher God" Frank stayed .... overnight.... at the studios watching Tropical Storm Erin.

TS Erin made "landfall" this morning around Corpus Christi and now (like you would expect) it's raining a pretty good piece over much of the Texas coast. That is - anything on the "dirty" side, north east of the storm's eye or center. We're getting the outer bands of rain, nothing constant, just a heavy rain that comes and goes. [update 12 noon: We have a pretty loud thunderstorm and heavy rain at the moment, but nothing out of the ordinary associated with T.S.]

But you would have thought this morning that the world was coming to an end, again, since we're not apparently dead from the heat.

Just ONCE, I would like to watch the morning news and have someone say in a clear and normal voice, "Well, folks, looks like that tropical storm is making landfall now. You know that means keep an eye out for flash flooding and watch for high water on the roads. It should last the better part of today and tonight. The winds have decreased from 40 mph to 35 mph, so we shouldn't expect much wind damage. Sit tight."

Oh no - we have to go LIVE to a correspondence in Corpus, who stands wearing a slicker and it's not even raining. We have to go LIVE to another correspondence who stands in the light rain this time, but there's almost no wind. We have to go LIVE to another person who yet again tells us in a loud, excitable voice that this STORM "could" wreak havoc across the coast this morning.

And of course, just as the rain begins to stop tomorrow - we'll be hysterical over Hurricane Dean, now predicted to enter the Gulf sometime next Tuesday?

Invitation

My sister and sister-in-law helped me come up with Brenna's birthday invitations this weekend. While I was mulling around wondering what to do, Lisa & Leah whisked Brenna upstairs, changed her clothes, hung a black curtain and took this photo. Later I was able to add the words in Adobe Photoshop CS. (If you click on the photo above, it will enlarge and you can read it clearly.)

Here are two other snaps that I considered.

Happy Birthday!

Today and tomorrow we're celebrating big birthdays in the family. Mom is... well, I shouldn't say, but it has a 0 on the end and if you know us, then you know which number goes in front!

Laurie Elizabeth, affectionately called "Laurie Bird" or "Birdie" will be ONE tomorrow.

I didn't get a good photo of them together at the birthday party last night, so I'll post this one from sometime during the past year.

Mom & Dad are back from the cruise, and naturally arrived with token gifts for everyone. Clearly Laurie has learned to run up to Nana as she comes through the door and ask, "What did you bring me, Nana?"Laurie's birthday party last night was a big hit. Everything was beautiful and the house was bustling with kids laughing and playing.

She did not have to be told twice what to do with her piece of cake, and Daniel (big brother) was so adorable "helping" her.
She surprised me by really responding to this new chair. She loved it!

I made her feel "safe"

I logged on tonight to blog about our week and discovered that through some kind of kismet it appears an unusually high number of people we know blogged about going to the dentist today or yesterday! Our visit was Wednesday. Cameron is an old pro, but this was Brenna's first cleaning. She didn't really remember the dentist visit two years ago for the trauma of hitting her front tooth. I didn't go back with them in the beginning, but after some time (talking with another mom I know who was also there with her two kids!) the hygenist called me back.

They were finished with Cameron, and Brenna had front/back X-rays taken already (no molar shots), but she was refusing to sit in the chair. I love this dentist. He's not a real kid-cutesy guy, but he's very calm and soothing. I sat on the far end of the chair and put my hand on her leg while he showed her all his tools, the mirror, the whirring "toothbrush", had her smell the toothpaste, and then she cautiously laid back for him to look at her teeth. I just sat on the chair with my hand on her leg and chatted with the hygenist while the dentist personally cleaned all her teeth. Then we looked at x-rays.

Brenna is a little disappointed that she won't be losing any of her teeth for the tooth fairy for about another year. Cameron lost #8 on Tuesday (July 30) in a bloody gush, seven years to the day that the tooth originally broke through her gums.

After the visit, Brenna told me that having my hand on her leg made her feel "safe". Awww....

So good dental check-ups for another six months. Eight down, 12 to go for Cameron to lose. Probably one more year for Brenna - right on the same track as Cameron, who lost her first tooth the first week of first grade.