Happy Halloween!!

Our newest addition

Sunday the girls went to the Church Halloween Festival. It was organized and run by the Jr. High CCE and was actually pretty darn cute. Cameron went as a cowgirl/rancher and Brenna as a little angel. They tossed bean bags, rings, played musical chairs, got hand tattoos, the normal things. At the end, Brenna won a goldfish.

The girls were giddy with excitement. They carefully held the plastic cup in their hands on the drive home, talking very seriously about their new "pet" and how they had to take care of it. Cameron said, "I've wanted a pet my whole entire life!" They both went on and on with each other about feeding and changing the water and being responsible pet owners - with Mommy & Daddy's help of course.

Once Bryan got over the shock, he took them both to Petco and bought a little tank kit with pump, gravel, etc. They conditioned the water and, a few hours later, transferred the fish into the tank.

The fish has been named Gold Pumpkin.

Brenna got to feed the fish first with the little floating Goldfish pellets. The fish didn't eat a thing. Brenna sat next to the tank looking at Gold Pumpkin while Cameron wrote a fish song.

Gold Pumpkin, Gold Pumpkin, your skin shines very bright.
Gold Pumpkin, Gold Pumpkin, it shines in the light.
Gold Pumpkin, Gold Pumpkin, you look very bright.

Brenna became very excited looking up and saying "Mom! He made a fishy face at me!" and she proceeded to make fishy faces back at the fish. She also had some sort of very serious and solemn conversation with the fish and kissed the tank. Surprisingly, the fish was still alive this morning. I scooped up the leftover food from last night before the girls came into the living room, so Brenna could turn on the tank light and Cameron could put new food in the tank.

We'll see how long this lasts.

UPDATE: At 2 p.m. Monday I came home to meet the plumbers (another post someday, not today) and poor Gold Pumpkin is a floater. Don't know how the girls will react to planning a flushy fishy funeral. It's been less than 24 hours since Brenna brought him home.

Pumpkins

The Methodist church in our area hosts a pumpkin patch each year and we take the girls to pick out their pumpkins. Holy pumpkins are pricey, so we picked out one each. The only rule was that the girls had to be able to carry their own pumpkin themselves.

(I've had positive comments about the circles, so here they are again. )

Cool Slideshows

We've been to this pumpkin patch often. In fact I have a photo available from last year and this year - let's compare!

Oops - Brenna has on the exact same clothes as last year!! The shirt was a little big last year - and is a little short this year! She also has more hair (finally!) You don't often think about how much both girls have changed during the past year until you compare photos side by side.

Last year we carved our pumpkins two days before Halloween - and boy were they scary for Halloween night. They had grown fuzzy beards and hair and fell inwards into a completely melted mess. Guess there was too much humidity and mold spores in the air. We've learned our lesson (sort of) this year. We'll have to carve one or both, because the girls are asking for roasted pumpkin seeds.

Cameron's school is having a pumpkin decorating contest today, Friday. Here is her creation - entirely her own design. (Can you see the tissue paper hair?)

We dropped it off at the cafeteria stage this morning. Wouldn't you know that 2nd grade has the most entries. And if two of those pumpkins were done entirely by the student without parental help, we need to get them into an accelerated art program! They were extremely creative. Cameron is very pleased with her creation. I don't even think she realized it's a contest!

UPDATE: She didn't win, or even place, but she was okay with it. She did get a cute certificate from the CL Garden Club. The girls and Bryan are watching, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" right now - 40th anniversary. We love this show!

Religion

The theme this weekend was religion with two major events taking place.

Saturday:
Cameron had a mandatory Reconciliation workshop in preparation for her First Confession (which they now call Reconciliation) this fall. Unfortunately, the 3-hour workshop conflicted with her Nutcracker practice. So we were forced to make that difficult decision - Confession (and thereby First Communion in May) or Nutcracker practice. We went to the workshop.

I was completely disappointed with this mandatory workshop. We met in the huge Parish Life Center and were given a packet, with a workbook, and an agenda. The agenda consisted of rotating between three stations - make a Colors of Faith cross, make a stole to wear at Confession, and watch a video of a priest talking with children about Confession.

The video was the most substantive part, and it was extremely infantile. The priest, in a very patronizing "boys and girls" voice, introduced his puppets (a sheep and a shepherd) and told the children that sheep are not very smart - they need a shepherd. Then he said that WE are like the sheep and our shepherd is Jesus. Cameron turns to me and whispers in that voice, "Mom, did he just tell us that we're not smart?" Years worth of self-esteem building undermined by a priest.

After our arts & crafts and video we met again as a group in the PLC. There the leader chose a boy from the group and they read from a piece of paper about what to say in the confessional (or choir room, or nursery, or whereever they put all the visiting priests coming to handle First Confession.) Then parents were told that we must go through all six lessons in the workbook with our children before First Confession - which is in five weeks. They even included a Teachers Guidebook to help us! Help us? Isn't that what CCE is for? Couldn't that have been the purpose of this Mandatory Workshop? Instead of Arts & Crafts, couldn't we have worked in a smaller, more intimate room on the lessons in the workbook? Couldn't we have at least seen what the confessional looks like?

So much potential to treat this sacrament with the seriousness that it deserves - wasted.
If these 7-8 year olds are old enough to receive this Sacrament as individuals, then they are old enough to learn it respectfully and not have it treated as another "fun" activity as if they were four years old.

Sunday
Lisa & Brian had their new daughter, Laurie Elizabeth, baptized on Sunday. Our father served as the Godfather and I stood in as the Godmother. I am also Godmother to Laurie's older sister, Ashley. The Baptism was a competely different experience than the workshop. It is Faith in Action: from saying the vows, baptizing with the water, anointing with chrism, and lighting the baptism candle from the Easter candle, to being surrounded by loving members of family and friends. All looking on with the same wishes and intentions - to love that child and see her raised in the church with spiritual guidance.
Deacon Bob at St. Lawrence (pictured above) has been an integral part of the Jones family. He married Lisa & Brian, and performed the Baptism for all three of their children.

Lisa, Brian, Laurie with three of her four great-grandmothers.

And I would be remiss if I didn't post this great photo of all four granddaughters being just as cute as can be!

Seaworld and Questions....

Questions

Brenna has been asking questions - so many that I can hardly keep count. You never know where you'll be when her little voice pops up:

"Mommy? How do they make the sidewalk?"

"Mommy, how do they make Kleenex?"

"Daddy, how are houses built?"

"Where does the water come from?"

You get the idea? I suppose she's just becoming more and more aware of the outside world. Now, if we could just help her more get her temper under control. She can be such an agressive child, especially with her sister. And yet, everyone wants to be Brenna's friend at preschool. I am constantly reminding her to be nice.


Seaworld
We had never been to Seaworld, so we tried it....and loved it. The girls are at just the right age to enjoy everything and we had a blast. Naturally we tried to do too much in our one-day visit, so we took advantage of their offer and upgraded our day pass to a 2007 season pass.

Cameron was especially impressed with Believe, the Shamu show. She had this huge grin stuck on her face through the whole show and when it was over, she turns to me and in an awed voice says, "Mom. I don't want to be a teacher anymore. I want to be a KILLER WHALE TRAINER!" Both girls rode the kiddie rides and fed the dolphins. Cameron and I held a snake! VIVA, the dophin/beluga whale show was incredible, but I think we most enjoyed the Cannery Row Caper - Sea Lion show.

Before the show, one of the "actors" came out and did a little pantomime, pratfall, type entertainment. She pulled people out of the audience and did different things with them. In the middle, she pulled Bryan out and brought him and another fellow down and she gushed all over them. At one point she put Bryan down on one knee and on cue the Wedding March music played she mimed being all surprised over her proposal. Later we realized (from the photos) that she had one eye squarely on me during that time, but I was too busy laughing and taking pictures to notice. Brenna and Cameron however were NOT amused. Brenna pouted and was very insistent that Daddy should be back up in the stands with us and not with that lady. Five days later and she still talks about that lady taking Daddy.

Enjoy the photos!!

In Their Honor

A friend of mine in Hendersonville, North Carolina sent me a link to a CBS news story about a local businessman who is raising money to send every WWII veteran in the country to see the WWII Memorial in Washington DC. My friend has signed up to be a volunteer/guardian on a future trip. This moving story brought to mind our own visit to the WWII Memorial when Bryan & I went to DC for the SAA meeting.

It was our first time to see the memorial; I haven't been in DC since 1990 and this was Bryan's first visit. The memorial opened in 2004. As we approached it from the Washington Memorial, I noticed it was much larger than I expected. The Memorial is oval-shaped with each long end representing the two fronts - Pacific and Atlantic. Each state has a granite column topped with a bronze wreath - they stand tall and strong. I was overwhelmed by an intense, indescribable feeling standing in this Memorial. There is an energy, a strength, a solidity residing there that I have not felt at any other memorial in Washington DC.

Entering the Memorial, I noticed the beautiful bronze artwork, bas-relief sculpture panels set into the balustrades of the north and south ceremonial entrance walls. As I walked along looking at the 12 representing the Pacific, I found tears in my eyes.

If you have had the chance to visit, I know you will support the efforts of Hendersonville, NC in sending the veterans to see it in person. If you haven't seen it, you really should.

WE ARE DETERMINED THAT BEFORE THE SUN SETS ON THIS TERRIBLE STRUGGLE OUR FLAG WILL BE RECOGNIZED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AS A SYMBOL OF FREEDOM ON THE ONE HAND AND OF OVERWHELMING FORCE ON THE OTHER.

- General George C. Marshall

Skunks

Long ago, about five years, we bought a house that backed up to a beautiful public golf course. Assured that the golf course carried deed restrictions, requiring it to be a golf course, we fell victim to the classic blunder - don't trust anything anyone says. Six months after we bought the house, the golf course was sold to another management company, who drove away all their major clients and became lazy on the overall maintenance. What a surprise that nine months later the company asked to be let out of the deed restrictions on the basis that the golf course wasn't economically viable and they wanted to develop the 72 acres of formerly pristine land into luxury single-family townhomes and houses.

Our core neighborhoods united, and with the help of the deed restriction owner, Exxon (thank you) blocked the development. However, the owner closed the course and has left it to be barely maintained (it desperately needs to be mowed as I type!) At present, neighbors ignore the no-trespassing signs and use the old golf cart paths as running, walking, biking paths.

Residents aren't the only ones ignoring the "no trespassing" signs. An increased number of "critters" have moved in. Unusual animals that I have personally seen either in our home or by the back patio door include very large raccoons, snakes, and a skunk. We have seen dead possums in the street, and a neighbor reports she has seen a coyote wandering the course at night.

A week ago Saturday night, we were awakened by scritching and clawing (and squealing) in the wall next to our bathtub. After the first sleepless night we reasoned it might be a possum, and purchased a live trap. It took a week of trial and error - where to set the trap, what bait to use, etc. before we finally captured our possum on Friday night, only to discover it wasn't a possum.

It was a skunk.

While a very pretty little skunk (who knew they were so cute!) we were more than a little apprehensive about moving the cage without getting ah... stinky. As we tried to fill the hole that night our little captive grew agitated and let us know by turning and lifting his or her tail. We left it alone and went to bed anticipating a quiet night.

About 2:45 a.m. the clawing noises were back. We thought perhaps a second skunk was still there (we had seen a second skunk slinking around), but discovered the next morning that our captive had escaped. Darn thing managed to tip over the trap, which released the door just enough to slip out. (Who knew they were smart?)

After several phone calls we learned the following:
1) It is illegal to transport wildlife in the state of Texas.
2) It is illegal to dump any live animal on public or private property, without the permission of the land owner.
3) Skunks carry rabies!
4) Houston animal control says they will pick up a trapped skunk, even on Sunday.
5) A professional company will charge you $250 to come out and set a trap, plus $60 for each additional animal they remove. They will also fill the hole and set up barriers.

It was suggested that we try to run them out of their burrow (under and inside our house) by one of several methods: flooding them out, smoking them out, or out-stinking them out. We tried the latter.

Sat. night, one week after this began, we poured an entire box of mothballs into an old sock, knotted it, and stuffed it up the hole as far as possible. Fortunately for us, it was after 10 p.m. and our little friends must have been out foraging for the night.

It's now been three nights - very restful, quiet nights. I think it might be safe to bring out the QuickCrete.