School

Now that Cameron is in 4th grade, she has the opportunity to join additional clubs and activities that all meet after school until 4 or 4:30 p.m. (In other words, a working parent's logistical nightmare.) She ran for Student Council (didn't win), and now has joined the Yearbook Club and Choir. Choir meets until 4:30 p.m. every Tuesday. I told her the only way she could join was if she found a friend who was also attending and we could ask her friend's mom to pick her up and hang onto her until I get off work at 5 p.m. (A big thank you to Samantha's mom!)

Today she joined the Yearbook Club, which only meets once a month until 4 p.m. I think I can slip that into my work schedule, except for one date in April. The Yearbook club elects officers and Cameron ran for Secretary. When I picked her up a little after 4 p.m. she bounced to the car on cloud 9 - she won! She is now the Secretary of the Yearbook Club. Oh, and she needs to "borrow" the digital camera for all school events. Hm... maybe Santa will bring her one.

This is Cameron's official "Secretary election" hairstyle that she asked for this morning.

Not to be left out, I should mention that Brenna has really been enjoying first grade! Her behavior has really improved!! She is not having the same self-control problems that she had in Kindergarten, which I confess has me comparing the personality differences between the teachers too.

Brenna is finally reading more comfortably and even seems to enjoy her daily journal writing. Let me share two of them with you.

This says "I like science because it is fun. I like the experiment we made." They went to science lab and did a "What sinks? What floats? experiment.

Go Texans!

Saturday morning Bryan called me with the news that he had been given four tickets to the Houston Texans NFL game at Reliant Stadium. How exciting!! We've never been to a Texans game; the girls have never been to a football game. I think the last time Bryan and I went to an NFL game was the Packers/Cowboys playoff game in 1994.

We arrived at the stadium with plenty of time. Seeing all of the fancy tailgating parties - some of them have a live band - was a new experience. Once inside the stadium we found our seats just in time for the national anthem and introducing the teams.

Even though our seats were waaayyy up high, we had a great view and really enjoyed ourselves.

. The Texans franchise has gone to great lengths to get the fans involved with the team. They have a fan band, the cheerleaders, and our favorite was yelling "First Down" every time the team achieved one.

If you're a football fan, you know what happened Sunday afternoon. The Texans gave up a touchdown, then scored two field goals, gave up some more, ran kick-off return for their first TD. Scored again after the half - and immediately gave up another TD to Miami.

The girls were crossing fingers and toes -- and ears-- hoping that the Texans would pull out a win! But the game came down the last few seconds, leaving 70,028 fans screaming at the top of our lungs for a win. (Okay, maybe half had left to beat the traffic....) Now, the first time the Texans scored a TD, I had taken the girls down to the bathroom. The second TD came while Bryan had them downstairs buying a funnel cake. So when the Texans got the ball, I ran Brenna downstairs to go the bathroom again. (okay, honestly I was just thinking to get down there before a line formed.) While we were in the bathroom, we heard the crowd go crazy as the Texans moved the ball inside the ten-yard line.

We watched the tv screen under the seats with others as the Texans snuck the ball into the end zone. We screamed and hugged and spun around with excitement. The whole stadium was electrified and strangers were laughing and patting each other on the shoulder.

What a fabulous Sunday afternoon!

After Ike

Immediately after Ike we had tree debris covering the yard. I blogged about Bryan and Dad cleaning up the front yard, the tree guys coming and trimming out the hanging branches, and you probably figured that we had to bag up the backyard ourselves. For about three weeks our front yard looked like this -

I think I read that Houston had three weeks to remove over six and a half TONS of tree debris for FEMA to reimburse the city. One day we found crews up and down our neighborhood. At first we were excited to be rid of the debris, and then we were snarled in traffic as the crews blocked the streets we were using to avoid intersections (no street lights, remember?) They even blocked the way to school one morning.

These guys work fast and furious, letting nothing stand in their way of getting the debris picked up. The claw gouged our tree, knocked off the bricks from our flower bed, and bent a piece of rebar in half. But here is our yard when we came home one night last week.

The only thing left in the yard were the bags. (Apparently bagged tree debris cannot be picked up by FEMA trucks.) This morning I bought the girls a few of those bags that look like giant pumpkins, and we were going to put some of the smaller leaves bags into them for decorations. Well, we came home this afternoon and the bags are gone!

For the first time in over a month, our yard is cleared and clean! Of course the grass is dead in many places, though where Cameron is standing in this photo grass has never grown well due to a lack of sunlight. Today we were surveying the yard and I noticed for the first time that with the trees thinned out there was sun falling right on that corner of the yard! Perhaps we'll get some grass there this spring.

MP3 singing

The other day I caught Brenna singing along with her MP3 player.



I don't know where she got the accent!!

The song is Lyle Lovett's That's Right, You're Not From Texas. If you're not familiar with it, click the link and watch the video. It's a great song!

Gas Prices

About two months ago, when gas prices were about $3.75/gal, I commented to Bryan that the price per barrel of oil had dropped slightly so it was only a matter of time before we started seeing lower prices at the pump. We entered into a little wager - my point was that before Christmas, gas would be below $3.25/gal. We had to carefully set the parameters - it had to be a station where we regularly filled up and it had to be in the Clear Lake area.

After Hurricane Ike gas prices shot back up and I was thinking I just might lose this bet. Then the stock market started falling - and all around us we were hearing of cheaper gas prices. But the four stations that we regularly use were solidly posting prices of $3.39/gal. Bryan would call me from all over Houston telling me how low gas prices were dropping - $3.25 at one, $3.19 at another. He even saw a station advertising $2.99/gal!

Tonight we took the girls to their riding lesson. The stables are about ten miles away and on the way home I stopped a Kroger station. The advertised price was $2.99/gal and I remembered to use my Kroger card and it gave me ten cents off! (There is no Kroger gas station near our house.) So for the first time since February I paid $2.89/gal. I filled the entire tank (sitting on E) for under fifty dollars. On the way home from the station, we passed by one of our four stations - and they had it for $3.19/gal!!!! So I officially win the bet. Yet, when I got to the station closest to the house - it's still sitting at $3.39. What gives?

How are gas prices in your area? What's the lowest price you've seen? The lowest you paid?

All Seven

In the second week after Hurricane Ike, Bryan and I went back to work and the girls' school was still closed. After three days of taking them to daycare, I accepted Mom's offer to watch them; for them to have a "fun day" instead of plain ol' boring daycare. (Thanks Mom!)

Cameron and Brenna actually spent two days at Nana & Papa's house. Cameron ran errands with Aunt Lisa and "babysat" Megan, while Brenna attended VeggieTales concert with Alexander. (Thanks Leah!) The second day they all went to Chuck E. Cheese, which is pretty incredible, because Brenna is terrified of the mouse.

My sister sent this photo to me today. We think it might be the first time all seven children have been in the same picture since Megan was born in April. (front) Megan, 5 mos; Cameron, 9; Ashley, 6; Daniel, 4; (back) Alexander, 2; Brenna 6; Laurie 2.

A break from politics

This was a week of crazy politics. Seriously, how much PORK *oinkoink* was stuffed into that bill designed to "save" our economy? So much for "bipartisan" doublespeak - Congress couldn't put aside their earmarks for something this important. They saw it only as the opportunity to sneak *one more thing* into a bill that everyone knew HAD to be passed. I'm surprised that Pelosi didn't lead the march from the Capitol into the National Archives building to personally shred the Constitution physically.

The only hightlight of the week was the Vice Presidential debates. Gov. Palin did a fantastic job proving that the only time she's ever come across "bad" in the press is when Katie Couric records two hours of interview so CBS can hand-pick (edit?) to find the worst possible five minutes.

But leave it to Jay Leno to leave us rolling last night. He put together a fabulous montage! And since NBC offered an embed link, you have the opportunity to have another good laugh.