Sabine River

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Cameron earned her trip to the Sabine River by getting an A on her report card in Social Studies. Since then we've had a houseful of sickies that have postponed the trip. Sunday morning after CCE we put the ice chest in the back of the car, loaded up the girls (who didn't know where we were going) and hit the road. Two hours later we spilled the beans about where we were going as we approached the Sabine River bridge going into Lousiana.


You can still see the effects of Hurricane Rita on the landscape in East Texas along I-10. Trees are leaning, some trees are down, some of the tree tops are snapped off and hanging. Cameron wanted to know why people didn't come along and clean up the fallen trees.

After we crossed the Sabine into Louisiana, we stopped at the Information Center. They have a boardwalk over the marshlands in the back, and we took the girls on a mini-hike to see the landscape. Beautiful bald cypresses with their "knees" sticking out and the Spanish moss hanging down.

This is where we were when I received a telephone call from my Mom, who told me that Dad experienced chest pains while at "the ranch," and my uncle was driving him to the nearby rural hospital. There wasn't anything I could do - being at least two hours away from home, which is two and half hours away from the ranch - so I asked her to keep me posted. Bryan and I decided to eat our picnic with the girls before heading back; however, on our way to Niblett's Bluff on the Sabine, Mom called again and said they were life-flighting Dad to a major Austin hospital. We immediately turned the car toward home.

We did make one more stop, on the Texas side, to use the restroom and break out the picnic sandwiches (we ate in the car). I also let the girls take a quick trip outside to see the Blue Elbow Swamp. More bald cypress, frogs, a few early blossoms, and a whole slew of turtles sunning themselves. Cameron & Brenna enjoyed this statue of a snapping turtle.

Well, maybe Cameron enjoyed it more....

We were back on the road when Mom called to say that Dad had arrived at Austin and was in the heart catherization lab. About an hour later we heard that they found the blockage and were able to clear it with a stent. He was okay. As soon as we got home, my sister and I drove out to Austin to be with Mom & Dad & our brother. Dad came home on Tuesday and we've been very thankful to God for all our blessings.

Sunday morning, our CCE lesson had been the Miracles of Jesus (focusing on the Wedding at Cana story), and our faith word "Miracle" was defined as God's presence in our world. If you put together all of the many, many small things that allowed Dad to receive care so quickly on Sunday, it can only be be defined as a Miracle.

Haircuts

The girls have been getting a little shaggy lately. In December I found out that my hair stylist of the past five years was quitting the business. She married in the summer and they decided she would go back to college full-time for her degree. So only Bryan has had a haircut for the past two months. I finally had to try a new place because the girls have class photos next Friday.

Here are the before/after photos:

Tell me if you don't think Cameron & Brenna are starting to look like more and more alike!

Jaywalking

I've heard quite a bit of talk lately about getting the youth vote in the upcoming elections, representing the 18-29 yr old demographic.

I just watched another painful episode of Jay Leno's Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars. This segment features three of the most ignorant people they could find on the streets during a Jaywalking taping and brings them on set for a Jeopardy-style display of their complete stupidity. I cringe every time I see this and I always comment "God, I hope it took them HOURS to find people stupid enough to get enough footage." Sadly, I know it probably takes them no time at all. (And why anyone would actually sign a release for NBC to use them on the Tonight Show proves beyond any other doubt their intelligence.)

In tonight's episode they showed a photo of John McCain and not one person could say who he was. The closest they could get (after being told he was running for President on the Republican ticket) was Dick Cheney. The city in Italy famous for its canals? (after being prompted with the phrase "Venetian blinds") Venezuala. Who lives in the Vatican? Why it's the Vaticans of course.
Members of which profession take the Hippocratic Oath? Hypocrites. Members of Congress. Nuns. I just can't stand it.

THESE are the "youth" that everyone is begging to get their vote. Too large of a percentage can't tell you the basic tenets of what each candidate stand for or what their party stands for. They only know that there's a young African-American who smiles and gives charismatic speeches about hope and change. In ten years when these "youth" should be succeeding and making a bit of money to raise their family, they're going to see just what "hope and change" costs from their paycheck and their pockets. But don't worry, the government will take care of them, it just won't be what they're used to from good ol' Mom & Dad.

What unit of currency do they use in France? The Peso? The Dinero? Yeah, but that's not France, that's 59-Pizza Patron stores in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California.

A little disappointed

Tonight is a total lunar eclipse with a reddish moon, visible about 9 p.m. in our area of the world. The last total lunar eclipse until December 2010. I had planned to take the girls to the Lunar Planetary Institute this evening for the viewing and some fun children's activities. But two strikes against us - Bryan is sick (aches, chills, headache, but no fever) and we have rain. Complete cloud cover. So even though the full moon would be visible out our back window, rising over what's left of the closed golf course, we can't see it. What a disappointment.

Quick trip

The first weekend after our week of sickies (Feb 10) we decided that it was too beautiful of a day to stay cooped up in the house. We had originally planned to go to the Sabine River that weekend, but Brenna and I were still not well; in fact I found out at Monday's Dr. appt that I was harboring a nasty sinus infection.

We spent an hour at the San Jacinto Monument and Museum. It's very close, but Brenna has never been and Cameron was too young the last time to remember it. First we went through the museum. We chose to use our limited time to go for a hike on one of the marshlands boardwalk trails instead of taking the elevator to the top. We wanted to spend as much time outside as possible.

While on the hike we saw many birds, including a roseate spoonbill, egrets, herons, and many red-winged blackbirds, who were very vocal this evening. But the best was when Brenna and I saw an alligator! Bryan and Cameron had walked ahead and they didn't see it. Brenna, who was frightened, ran to catch up with Daddy, who promptly made her turn around and show him where she saw it. Disappointingly for him, the alligator had already turned the corner into another area.

This was the view we had of the monument as we returned. At 570 feet, the San Jacinto monument is the world's tallest memorial column. (Oh yeah, it towers a whole 15 feet above the Washington Monument.)

The girls at the base of the monument. If you're not familiar with the Battle of San Jacinto, take a moment and read about it at their website. In this photo, the reflection pool is behind the girls, with the six flags that flew over Texas, and though you can't see it, the Battleship Texas is a little farther back - at the sight of the Texian Army camp.

Diabetes Walk

Last week the girls came home talking about the diabetes lessons they learned in school. They also were excited about the school's Walk for Diabetes on Friday. Both girls asked Bryan and I to take their "Walk for Diabetes" fundraiser to work with us. They have learned from cookie dough sales and Girl Scout cookie order forms that "work" is the magic place where people fill in the blanks. To be quite honest, I had absolutely no intention of bringing yet another "money" form to work to put in the break room, but Brenna was so excited last week and asked me every day whether I'd brought it to work yet. So I caved and set up an online donation site for both girls. I hoped for a few $5 and $10 donations so the girls would have something to feel proud about.

Within thirty minutes of sending out an email to some family and friends, the online site had already picked up $100. I reset the goal amount three times, and each time I was overwhelmed by our friends and family's generosity. Even more touching were the emails that flooded my inbox telling of this person or that who has diabetes. I printed all of those emails to bring home for the girls to read. (That was the first night Brenna started running a high fever, so Cameron read them all.)

Thursday night we transferred all of the online donations to the entry form and printed the gift history list. Combined with offline checks, we turned in $450!! Actually, when we returned from the walk there were two more donations - $500!


THANK YOU to everyone who either gave money or sent us an email with information.


Friday arrived and Brenna was still home sick, but Cameron proudly walked for everyone!

She walked for:

Uncle Mike,

in memory of Great-Grandma,

in memory of Great-Aunt Maxine,

Ellie, a 9-yr old girl in Florida,

Julia, an 8-yr old girl in Maryland,

Debbi,

Eleanore Stauble,

Bobby Peebler,

Julia Dunn,

in memory of Frank Arthur Oakley, and

in memory of Karen B.'s mommy.

The entire third grade, about 100 students, marched around the outside of the school waving ribbons, pom-poms, carrying signs, cheering, and chanting. I was very impressed with the two PE teachers who organized this event, from the curriculum to the actual event. What fun! I heard children chanting "Walk for the cure!" and "Exercise an hour a day and don't forget to be fit!"

As a result of everyone's generous support, Cameron was the top girl fund-raiser at school and will be receiving 4 tickets to Galveston's new Schlitterbaun waterpark. So once again, THANK YOU.

Sickies

Brenna and Mommy have been sick all week. We lost a whole week! It started with Brenna running a high fever last Friday, and Mommy started hers on Sunday, and somewhere between the two of us we have been running fever, coughing, sinus and chest congestion, and headaches for 8-9 days. Today Brenna is much better, and if Mommy could just get rid of this sinus pain and headache, she knows she would be on the mend. So if we've been particularly quiet, it's because we've been laying on the couch together sleeping since Sunday a week ago.

Personally, I feel like Rip Van Winkle, who wakes up and the world has passed him by. It's a week later and everything that had to be done last week didn't get done.