Happy Halloween

Another year, another trick or treat! Can you guess our little tricksters?

If you guessed Cheerleader (thanks again Linda for the costume!) and Hermione Granger (make sure you say it with the accent) then you're right!

School Photos

Just before we left for the wedding, both girls came home with their school photos. I wish I had time to dig out a photo of myself from 3rd grade or 4th - and you could see just how exactly Cameron resembles her good ol' mom, even if she has her daddy's blue eyes.

Need to see how much the girls have grown this year? Go check out last year's photo.

Read all the way down!

FYI - there are five (5) new posts below this one! Be sure to read it all the way down to catch up with us over the past week. We are busy, on the go, and never stop!! This is the last update I forsee on the blog until we return from Brad & Amanda's wedding in McKinney this weekend. At last!

Pumpkin perfect

Sunday between church, birthday parties, playdates, grocery shopping, and laundry (whew) we ran over to the annual Pumpkin Patch. I can't get over how much the girls have grown - and I suppose I use these photos as a benchmark each year. (Click on the above photo to see it better.)

Octoberfest

Willkommen to Fourteen Pecans!

The Peebler family revived their original Octoberfest to the delight of their friends and family. Good food, great friends, fabulous weather. What more could a party want? (And yes, the cops were called! Whoo!!)

Tony gave the blessing over the food in German.

And the food! So much wonderful food.

Jay passed out sparklers to the kids, before he and Bryan set up the big display.

AHA! Archives Week

This weekend marked the end of the observed AHA! Archives Week. We celebrated by enjoying the beautiful, picture perfect, weather at Rice University with a picnic and the not-quite-annual croquet tournament.

Joining us were Joel Draut (HMRC), Sarah Jackson (Harris County Archives), Bryan, Amanda Focke (Rice Univ. - with her 1 month old baby girl) and Lee Pecht (Rice Univ.) I had never played croquet before, but quickly got the hang of it - and of the cut-throat strategy of my colleagues.

Bryan accused me of not telling him it was a "tournament" with a trophy involved at the end. He made an amazing, incredible comeback about halfway through the final game to settle for second place. I blew my own lead after getting knocked away a few times.

Lee emerged as our winner - taking both games easily. Sarah presents him with the official AHA croquet trophy.

Wildcats Soccer - Captain Brenna!

This weekend Brenna had her turn as Captain of her soccer team. She saved every goal attempt made while she was in the goalie position, and she scored a goal. Her first "real goal" as she calls it, because it not only crossed the white line, it also went all the way into the net. We have lots of video - though not of the actual goal. Just ask us and we'll post it up on YouTube and link it here.

Busy weekends...

I haven't blogged about our busy weekends! The story will take a few blogging posts and I'll in order from last weekend to this. Last weekend Bryan went to McKinney to host his brother's bachelor party. (Whoo-hoo!) If photos or stories exist from this party, I am not privvy to them and I suspect "What happened at Bachelor Party Weekend - stays at Bachelor Party Weekend." I do know that they ate at Bone Daddy's and partied at Dave & Busters. (I know this because I saw the credit card bill. LOL!) I also know that Bryan and Brad had a really great time. Bryan had a smile stuck on his tired face when he came home, and when I asked if he & Brad had a good time, he smiled bigger and said, "Yeah."

While he was recuperating from partyin' and getting ready to drive home to us, I took the girls to our annual Messina Family Reunion.

My grandmother is on the far right in red. Her sister-in-law (Aunt Jo) is in green. Her neice (Mom's cousin) is in the middle in pink. Mary Ann (the one having fun) is married to another cousin - and you can tell we all have a really fun time with each other. Each year for the past 11 years the families descended from three of the four Messina sisters have gotten together for a reunion. Grandpa and Aunt Jo's mother was Maria Messina who married Pete Maniscalco. (See here for their story.)

Mom is really in her element at the reunions. She and several of her cousins are responsible for keeping the family connected. With a group this large it's easy to get disconnected. (Mary, my g-grandmother, had 9 children who survived to adulthood; her sister Angelina had 9 also; and another sister, Antonia, had five. All have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.) It seems like every year there is someone "new" attending the reunion. Last year we put together a PowerPoint show of all the family. It runs about twenty minutes. The family trees go back in Sicily to the mid-1700s.

Next year we will celebrate the Maniscalco family centennial - 100 years since Grandpa Maniscalco came over from Sicily through New Orleans on March 11, 1908. Grandma and Aunt Lena arrived a year later - July 1, 1909 - through Ellis Island.

What's wrong with this picture?

Monday night we came home a little after 6 p.m. and Cameron discovered something was wrong in the bedroom.

One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you guess which thing is not like the other, before I come to the end of this song. (If you don't know this song, you've probably never watched Sesame Street!)

Allen did something to the walls on Monday (and Tuesday, I think) and he had to tape up the light plates, the doors, etc. The toilet was uncermoniously put outside the bathroom door next to her bed. AND HE LEFT IT THERE. It's filthy! Covered with dust from the demolition, and looks nothing like my nice usually clean toilet. I'm really curious why he thought a little girl would actually sleep with her head next to that toilet. Bryan carried it out into the hallway (and it dripped water all over the carpet.)

The carpet - you don't even want to see the carpet in my house now. In the hallway just outside the bathroom door, Allen put down some drop cloths. Great - but then he walks to/from the backdoor and yesterday he had something white and sticky on his shoe and it's left a trail across the living room.

Tuesday I came home unexpectedly early and found a dog running around my house. We don't have a dog, so when the girls walked into the house and started screaming I was more than a little startled. Allen & his girlfriend left very quickly, even though it was only 3:30 p.m. (Yes, his girlfriend sits in the house all day with him. The first week she called to ask permission to watch the television, but apparently bringing her 12 yr old dog into the house isn't as important?)

This is ending week four and I can tell we're getting close, but I'm so ready for this job to be finished. Because then Bryan and I have to get in there and prime/paint the new cabinets, pull down the old wallpaper border and paint the walls. Then install the mirrors and upper cabinets. Then we can start work on the other bedroom.

But first I'm going to have to find some money to pay to have the carpets cleaned. I just hope they'll look okay so I don't have to buy new carpet.

Update on bathroom

Well, it's been a busy week and I haven't updated about the bathroom on a regular basis, so this might get a little long.

Some days you can see where a whole lot of work has been done, some days more of the work is detail-oriented or hidden, and not easily visible/noticeable. Coming home every day is an adventure - yesterday the attic stairs were pulled down in the garage. It's a regular thing to have every clock in the house blinking or maybe the dishwasher power is turned off at the breaker box. I'm also always sniffing to see what new smells have been introduced. The dust has settled over the house, even though he's not doing any more demolition there is a definite layer since I cleaned last week. Did I mention I need new vacuum cleaner bags?

So what does it look like? When last we left you, we had sinks though no hardware.

October 4 which was .... what.... Thursday? We came home and most of the upper shower had been tiled and the new shower liner added.

While we had the shower wall open, we found definitive evidence of termites. We tried 2x to have the exterminator come out and treat for carpenter ants (we've seen ants in the shower for the last few months) and to check out the termite damage and help us determine whether it is new or old. Each time the exterminator came out there has been no one here! We don't know where the contractor was - and I was out of town both Friday's.

Finally Jon came out on a Saturday and declared it possibly old damage - especially since we didn't see anything alive or crawling, and we know the house has been treated in the past (holes drilled in the patio and a treatment sticker under the kitchen sink). He sprayed all over the open walls and up into other opened parts.

This is what termite damage looks like with the mud knocked off and the damaged wood exposed. If you ever tear out a wall and see mud on the studs, you have a termite problem.

Allen cut this piece out and replaced it for us.

So far he's moved the light fixtures from one point to two separate lights over the two sinks. He's started work on making the one switch that controls the shower light and fan divided into one switch for each thing. In the front part, the sinks are in, the hardware is in there, and he started splitting the plumbing from one sink dividing it to handle two sinks.

He grounted the shower tile today and put in the shower fixtures. I could smell the grout the minute I walked in the door. Bryan had to buy some more bullnose tile so he can finish some trimming.

He's raising the ledge from the floor to the shower a little higher for more depth.

This photo shows on the left the wall where the termite damage was located - all closed up and tiled over.

And this is where it stands tonight. I don't know if Allen will be here tomorrow - he hasn't been here on the last two Fridays. So this is the end of week three. I'm very very very very very ready for this to be over. I don't know if it's four people sharing one bathroom, or the tools and buckets, mats and tarps, or the wet tile saw out back or the miter saw in the garage.

But I would love to be able to park my still-new Odyssey IN the garage again. I would like to vacuum and come home and it still be clean. I would like to get the front bedroom all fixed up again. This week has just seemed to drag on and on even though we clearly see progress.

Wild Cats Soccer

This morning Brenna acheived a long-time dream - to play soccer! Oh, she plays in the backyard with Daddy & Cameron, but ever since Cameron played 3 seasons of FFPS, Brenna has been waiting in the wings to be old enough to play her own season!

Bryan took her to the first practice where he said she played timidly. So after this mornings first rotation the coach walked by and gently tapped Brenna on the head and said, "Surprise! Surprise!" (She wasn't timid today!)

Despite pouring rain from about 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. the fields were open, though a bit wet, but oh was it hot and humid. It was muggy like a rain forest!

Brenna loved the game. She played four rotations as forward and one as goalie. FFPS rotates the players so everyone has a chance to play each position. When she was goalie she didn't let in a single goal. Of course, the only attempt went wild to the side.

But as forward she brought the ball two or three times down the field toward the goal. One time she gave it a kick - and it rolled gently over the line - the goalie just looking down at it. They are so cute at this age - the uniforms just swallow them all up!

Mom Sayings

A friend passed this along and I have to blog it. It is hilarious!!
I dare ANY mom to watch this and not crack a smile or laugh until you have tears in your eyes. Oh, you might smile at the beginning, but I promise at one point you will just bust out laughing and nodding your head because you recognize either yourself or your own mom!

We have sinks!

Biggest thing I've noticed about these cabinets is they are bigger - meaning taller and deeper - than the original 1964 cabinets in this space. Cameron could brush her teeth without a stepstool and Brenna could wash her hands. I'm fairly certain when this is all completed, both girls are going to need step stools for both tasks.

Seeing the tile set out around the sinks I think I would have prefered a smaller tile (these are 6"x6") on the countertops, but no way am I complaining about it now.

Allen also made progress on the shower.

He's added insulation and the board on the top. He cut in a small shelf for soap and shampoo bottles. You might not be able to tell from the photo, but the bottom of the studs are in pretty bad shape along the back/outside wall. Bryan is going to ask Allen if he can replace a section of them. We're not sure whether it's bug or water damage (or a little bit of both). The exterminator was supposed to come out on Monday at noon, but I don't know that he made it. I should probably call them tomorrow to verify - before Allen closes up the wall.

On a slightly different note - we sold my Jeep to Carmax tonight. While signing the paperwork I noticed that the odometer only read 99,744 miles, making this the first time we've ever sold or traded-in a car before it reached 100K miles. Hopefully selling the Jeep will lessen the insurance burden (need to shop that around and find a better price) and we can use the money from the sale to pay either the Lowe's bill or Allen. I surprised myself by not being all nostalgic over the Jeep - I loved that car. We brought Cameron home from the hospital in that car. I still had my Galveston resident sticker on the windshield.

But time marches on - and we're in a different phase of life. Minivans, road trips, and so on. I even picked up a t-shirt that says "Soccer Mom!"

What's in Floor?

What's in a floor? Dirt, Concrete Slab, and now ceramic tile.


Thursday evening we could not venture into the bathroom because tile had been laid out, properly spaced, and glued. Sometime Friday or Saturday, Allen set the tile in the back half, applied the grout, and began setting in the cabinets.

Uh-oh, now the toilet is in the shower! How many times I have told the girls not to use the shower for a toilet??!! LOL.