Christmas hits and misses

Santa did a really good job this year!

Luke and Logan both got a Nintendo DS lite - big hit, just about the only thing on their lists. Cameron got a digital camera, and she's been taking pictures and making movies all day long.

They also got some DS games, cases for their DS (the girls' cases are like little purses). Logan got a microscope and bacteria slides that they've been looking at all day, and Cameron got a chemistry set- we just got through doing the experiments on acids and bases. Luke got some Snap Circuits, which haven't made it out of the box yet.

There were 3 reindeer Webkinz (already registered and named!) and 3 golden retriever Lil Kinz (to be registered in January, when they're Pet of the Month). The girls got some earrings from James Avery, gloves and purses from Justice. Luke got some Hot Wheels, Cars, and a Cars carrying case/racetrack.

Other than the Snap Circuits, I think they've played with every single thing that Santa left for them. (S)He rocks! :)

I couldn't resist this t-shirt for Cass

Merry Christmas Eve!

I actually ventured out to Wal-Mart today. The cleaners came at about 9:30 am, so we had to go somewhere to get out of their way. I made a grocery list and off we went.

It was busy, but the lines actually weren't bad. I got all the groceries and was the 2nd in line to check out. Got done, realized I'd forgotten gift cards and Christmas cards (for the cleaning ladies' tips), so I actually went back - and was 2nd in line to check out again. Not bad at all.

I got stuff to make lasagna (for me) and homemade mac-n-cheese (for the kids) tonight. Tomorrow, we'll have turkey breast and cornbread dressing.

We'll get Cass to open his gifts from us tonight. I already got my iPhone, and I got myself a necklace from James Avery, so I told him not to get me anything. The kids have a few gifts from John and Krissy (friends from work). We got some Pillsbury sugar cookies - Christmas Tree, Santa, and Rudolph - to make and leave for Santa tonight. We've also got reindeer food to spread out in the front yard.

So, that's the plan. Hope Santa is good to you tonight!

Movie review

Cass was looking at what was playing at the movie theaters this morning, and he saw that Atonement was playing at the Tinseltown in Pflugerville. Last I looked, it was only playing at the Arboretum theater in Austin. I read about this film a few months back, and the reviews have been excellent, so I knew I wanted to see it when it came out.

It's based on the novel by Ian McEwan, and it stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy (Mr. Tumnus from Lion, Witch, & Wardrobe, The Last King of Scotland, and Becoming Jane). Right before I left for Europe, I bought a copy of the book to try and read it before I saw the movie.

I finished the book the last night we were in Berlin, and I wasn't very fond of it. It was a good story, but the writing was kind of disjointed with a lot of flashbacks. He tells part of the story, then goes back and fills in the blanks. If you're a fast reader like me, you can easily miss a lot. I also didn't like the ending of the story, even though I know it was probably written that way to keep it from being neatly tied up at the end.

Anyway, I just got back from seeing the movie, and I'm glad to say that I like the movie better than the book. Funny that it follows the book pretty closely. I guess I knew beforehand how it was going to be put together, and it helped me enjoy the movie more.

Keira Knightley and James McAvoy are brilliant, and I can see why it got lots of Golden Globe nominations. If you watch as many British films as I do, you'll recognize lots of actors - "Fanny Dashwood" from Sense and Sensibility, "Mrs. Bennet" from Pride and Prejudice, "Bella" from Notting Hill.

I definitely recommend it. This one will be up for some Academy Awards, as well.

Last day

Today is Cass's last day at work until March 1 (or so).

The entire fall has been completely crazy for him work-wise. He's been in Santa Clara, Seattle, and/or Europe more than he's been home - since August. Oh yeah, he went to Japan for a week in September, too. In the last 6 weeks, he's spent 4 of them in Europe. You think you'd absolutely love that, but when you're over there working, the magic wears off pretty fast. So I've been told.

He's gotten kind of burned out, so he decided to take off a significant period of time. He doesn't have that much leave - he only gets 3 weeks per year - so he's taking it without pay. I find it a little bit funny that he just got a pretty significant raise (thanks Ashu!), and he's not going to receive it for 4 pay periods. LOL!

In early January, he's going to interview with a juggernaut of an internet company out in San Jose. He's not terribly interested in that job, but he wanted to interview for the experience and to find out what his market value actually is now. They have an office here in Austin, so they've said they'd work it out so he could work from here. After that, we're going skiing at Vail for a week. Then he's going to interview with a very important computer game company in Dallas. That job, if offered with a competitive salary, is one that couldn't be turned down. He'd probably start the job in March, with us following as soon as our house would sell. (deja vu, San?)

In February, he's going to fly to Charleston and visit Blake for a long weekend. Blake was scheduled to come here back in November, and it got canceled at the last minute because of a short-notice trip to Berlin for Cass. That really stunk. So Cass has to make it up to him and go out there. :) Neither of us have actually seen Blake's kids since they were born - and they're 2 years old now!

The rest of the time, he's going to do nothing. Well, I say nothing. He bought himself (and me) a new computer last month - all of our computers were previously nVidia property - and he's going to do fun computer programming stuff during his time off. He put it up in the media room, which is like a private cave away from the rest of the house.

(All right - I'm posting this. May have to remove parts of it if Cass doesn't want me talking about his job interviews on the blog.....)

RNFs (random neuronal firings)

I had to turn the air conditioner on in my house today. It's 72 degrees outside, but we have this wall of windows that makes our great room hotter than normal when the sun is shining in.

Luke was an absolute angel at the dentist this morning. When I take him, he won't even get in the chair. When Cass takes him, he's a perfect angel. Go figure. This was an even bigger deal, because it's the first time he's gotten a filling without sedation. I thought for sure it would be a failed attempt with Luke freaking out and running laps around the office.

I wish my neighbors would stop parking in front of my house. Really - read the HOA rules about parking.

Is it bad that I find satisfaction when cars parked on the street in our neighborhood get egged?

I sent 3 Christmas cards to Germany, 1 to England, 1 to Russia, and 1 to Switzerland. Cool!

Why isn't Atonement playing at either of our local theaters?

More Santa letters

Dear Santa,

How are your raindeer? How are you? I'll tell you what I want. A Nintindo DS, some Webkinz (like love puppy love frog penugin turtle), DS games (20 or 10). Merry Christmas to all who is good! I love you! Good night! Bye!

Logan

-------------------

Luke's Wish List

• I love you Santa! (100%)
• a Nintendo DS

I hope you have a good time!

Love,
Luke

Dear Santa

I think I have been a good girl this year. Here's the list of toys I would like this year.

• a new Nintendo DS game(s)
• more Webkinz and Lil Kinz
• Locket Pal TM
• a nicer sister and brother
• digital camera

Thank you Santa Claus.
Cameron

P.S. Don't worry, I'll leave cookies!

Ahhh ..... Liberty!

The UPS man just left, and my Liberty Bowl tickets are here. Yay!

I left the house at 10 am and got a great majority of my Christmas shopping done. The little bit that's left, I can do from my chair in front of my computer. Yay!

You gotta love Super Target. You can do your grocery shopping as well as most of your Christmas shopping. I probably knocked out 90% of my list in that one store.

AND Cass ordered something for my FIL and MIL. It's always hard to come up with something that they'd enjoy, and he thought of something really good. Yay for Cass!

The weather is beautiful here today. It's about 65 degrees and clear skies. Gotta love Austin, TX!

Amazing what a difference a day makes, eh?

My new friend

My cell phone, Blackjack, expired today. I only had him for just over a year, but we had a love/hate relationship. I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but there was a nearly $400 cell phone bill, due to checking email one month this spring. That's all I'll say about that.

So Blackjack kicked it today, and I couldn't go more than about 8 hrs without cell phone technology in my hand - so we went to the AT&T store (formerly the Cingular store) and got me an iPhone.

I've had it for about 3 hours now. iPhone kicks Blackjack's arse. Period.

I am buried

I would like to have time to sit down and write about the trip, but I've been completely buried since I got back. I have done ~zero~ prep for Christmas.

This week, I've got to start and finish my shopping.
I've got to mail out Christmas cards.
I've got to get water bottles for Luke to take to school on Wednesday.
I've got to purchase teacher gifts.
I've got to help Cameron gather the data for her science fair project - due on Thursday.
I've got to take my car in to have the windshield replaced (very bad crack while going to pick Mom up from the airport).
I've got to find out what to do about the various stickers (inspection, tag, TXTag, etc.) on my windshield - and get it done before Christmas Day.
I've got to go grocery shopping so I can make turkey and dressing.

I hear that people are receiving their Liberty Bowl tickets via UPS, which means they shipped them out late last week. Mississippi State better get me mine before this week is out, or I may not have tickets in hand when we leave for Indianola.

I haven't showered. And my face is breaking out.

It's the most wonderful time of the year. LMAO!

Home!

Cass and I arrived home at about 9:50 pm tonight. That's roughly about 24 hrs after we first woke up to get to the airport in Berlin, including about a 6 hour layover at London Gatwick.

Tomorrow, I'll post a wrap-up and sort through the pictures to see if there are any more interesting ones that I missed.

We're exhausted, but it was a great trip!

Happy Anniversary!

Today Cass and I have been married 11 years. :)

More photos

Jenny and I did some sightseeing today, so the photos are a bit more interesting.

Jenny at the Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag (German Parliament)

Closeup of the front of the Reichstag building

Stones in the street indicating where the Berlin wall stood

Holocaust memorial

Section of the wall that's still standing (on Schutzenstrasse, I think?)

The World Clock in Alexanderplatz

The World Clock again

Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin

Daniel, Simon, Martin, Cyril, Yury, Martin-Karl, Jacopo, Cindy, Jenny

Going to some demolished mall/bar place in east Berlin

Cass at dinner

Simon, Martin, Cyril, Yury, Martin-Karl

Outisde the demoished mall/bar in east Berlin

Inside the demolished mall/bar in east Berlin

Bratwurst, sauerkraut, and boiled potatoes (yes, I ate some!)

Pictures

"Visiting" in the hotel lobby (aka reading the Blackberry)

Out to eat last night (Cass, Yury, Miguel)

Guess which beer is Cass's

Frankfurt = hotel lobby

Currently, I am sitting in the hotel lobby using their free wireless. Cass, Yury, and Miguel have gone for their meeting, and I am all alone. Even though I took 2 years of German at MSU, I have found it quite useless - which I always knew. I hated that class, and I did the bare minimum to get by with a decent grade. I'm sure Tracy retained much more of it than I did. :) (I remember you trying to speak it, like outside of class, and me thinking you were crazy! lol!)

Anyway, we went out last night to an "authentic German" restaurant. That's what the lady at the hotel said anyway. It was called Apostel, and we had pfeffersteak there. Well, Cass had stroganoff, and the rest of us had pfeffersteak. It was all good. They had their own beer, of course - Cass had the light version, and Miguel and Yury had the Christmas beer.

I have one picture from dinner last night, but I am awaiting a text from Cass to tell me where his GPS is. I forgot the card reader for the camera memory card, so we're having to use the GPS to get the pictures off the memory card and onto the laptop, so I can post them. Cass's texts aren't getting through very well, so I'm probably going to have to email him to get an answer.

Anyway, here I sit. I'm supposed to catch the bus/tram thingy in a few hours to go meet them before they go to dinner. That should be interesting. The ticket machine is in German. Miguel told me what to do - let's just hope I remember. They are only about 6 stops down on the same line, so it should be easy enough. ~crossing fingers~

Tomorrow, we're headed to Berlin, where we'll be for several days. My cousin Jenny, who is doing an internship in Switzerland this year, is going to fly up to Berlin. I'll be glad to have some company while Cass is busy with work stuff.

Photos

We got to Frankfurt a few hours ago, and after a good nap I'm ready to post some photos.

Yesterday, we did some sightseeing with Yury, Louis, Miguel and his son Pau. Well, we actually intended to see some sights, but we got a late start. By the time we left the pub, it was nearly dark. We went to the Westminster Tube stop to see Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, etc. The guys wanted to go on the London Eye, so they got tickets. The lines were reasonable, so they got on while I sat on a bench and watched. It was really nice - not too cold out, but there was a guy dancing to Michael Jackson music beside my bench, and he was attracting the drunk crowd. A drunk guy kept hovering around me, and he finally asked if he could sit next to me. I told him no and he left.

After they got off the Eye, we met up with Simon to go get some dinner. We ended up at a restaurant under a bridge, just north of the Eye along the Thames. We could hear the trains going overhead all during dinner. The food was really good, and we drank 2 bottles of wine. The restaurant was hosting Christmas parties and giving hats to the partiers, so Cass insisted that he get a hat. The waitress gave in (since we were non-partiers), but she totally gave Cass a girl hat. Everybody had a turn wearing the princess hat.

We went to a pub after dinner and ended up going back to the hotel way too late. Cass and I had to get up early this morning to get to Heathrow for our flight to Frankfurt.

The guys on the London Eye (they're in the higher car)

Yet another pic of Simon and Cass for our collection

Louis, me, Yury

Cass and his princess hat

Odd sight outside the restaurant

Simon's turn in the princess hat

Landed

After about an hour delay leaving DFW, my flight took off and I made it to London! Apparently there was bad turbulence over the Atlantic, so our original aircraft was taken out of service. They had to locate a new one and get it cleaned and the catering loaded. We left an hour late, but we arrived at Gatwick only about 30 minutes later than originally scheduled.

I told Cass - it was like all the planets aligned. I got off the plane, was one of the first few in the passport control line, then my bag was the first one off. I headed toward the train for the South Terminal, and jumped on just as it was leaving. The same with the Gatwick Express - I jumped on and it left 2 minutes later. My first big wait was waiting for a Circle Line train at Victoria Tube station.

I got to the hotel, and Cass made me eat breakfast. Cyril and Yury were there, and I'm sure they were impressed with my tired, no-makeup, jet lagged (and xanaxed), just off the plane look. Miguel and Simon arrived as well, so we had quite a gathering. Finally they left for their work thing, and Cass took me to his and Mark's room to crash. Mark was still asleep, so he got up and showered. I was completely unconscious until about 2 pm when Cass burst in and woke me up go to change to the new room he checked into today. I think the cleaning people had let themselves in while I was napping, then left when they saw me. I was so dead that I couldn't even speak.

In the room, I got a cup of tea, got a shower, and got cleaned up. I've been hanging out watching British game shows (which I love!) all afternoon. Cass just finished (8pm) the work stuff, and I think we're going to go eat.

Takeoff

I'm leaving for the airport in about 45 minutes!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Update

Check.

Check.

Check. (scored some good meds!)

Check.

Check.

That leaves....
- go do Thursday Folders for Logan's classroom (on Thursday morning, obviously)

Woo hoo!

Just bear with me....

....while my head explodes!

There is so much on my To-Do list and so little time to get it all done before Thursday when I leave.

- go to the grocery store and get Luke Orange Lavaburst Hi-Cs (the only kind he will drink, not to be confused with Tropical something-or-other flavor, which are also packaged in an orange color!)

- get the girls off to school in the morning, then

- immediately drive to Endodontist (through Austin and rush hour traffic!) for emergency dentist appointment - don't want to be caught out of the country with a root canal problem - does anyone else remember Lewis Grizzard's story about that? I will be disappointed if pain meds aren't prescribed.

- when finished at Endodontist, take Luke to preschool .... late (but approved by the Director)

- pick up Mom and Aunt from the airport

- get cash (not from this neighborhood bank that got robbed Saturday, but the one right across the street from it)

- go do Thursday Folders for Logan's classroom (on Thursday morning, obviously)

Oh yeah, somewhere in there I should finish packing. And sleep.

I won't post the To-Do list I'm leaving behind for my Mom. ROTFLMAO! Well, it's really not a to-do list, more like a schedule/list of anything that might come up in our household kind of document. It's 3 pages long.

Just about 48 hours until I leave for the airport! ~*KABOOM*~!!!

6 Liberty Bowl tickets, 2 hotel rooms, now I need a brain

I can't believe I'm considering going to the Liberty Bowl to see Mississippi State play Central Florida.

The last time I was there, it was 1991, we were playing Air Force, and Jackie Sherrill (still my personal all time favorite coach) was Head Coach. Ahhhh. I remember getting into the stadium with my student ticket, making my way to my seat, and turning around to see Scott Carroll pull a case of Miller Lite out of his coat. Good times.

So, there I was at 8:29 am this morning, waiting for the MSU website to update and put the tickets on sale. Yes, the MSU Ticket Office has finally joined the 21st century and gotten online ticket ordering - as of today. At 8:30 am, there it was, and I clicked.... and clicked.... and clicked.... and clicked again. They want to make damn sure you want to order those tickets before they process your order! We've got 5 possible bowl-goers, so I got 6 tickets. 'Cause, you know, we're old and we need our space. I had already reserved 2 rooms in Southaven on Sunday. This is my second post-season MSU event this year (we went to the CWS in June) - it's getting to be old hat or something.

I'll also tell you that as I was sitting there ordering tickets, I had deviated from my regular morning routine. I had to get those tickets ordered before I left to take Luke to preschool. On my way home from dropping him off, I realized that I hadn't packed him a sandwich in his lunchbox! ACK! I had to make a stop at the Pflugerville Wal-Mart Supercenter (brand spankin' new), and pick up my groceries - along with bread and turkey for Luke's impromptu lunch sandwich. I ran back up to the school and stuck it in his lunch box.

At least my priorities are in order. LMAO!

Must have order

Just some examples of Luke's little idiosyncrasies:

If you come along and turn one of the Cars backwards, he immediately has to fix it. (not that I do that or anything - lol!)

I had the presents bunched up under the tree. Luke had to straighten them out for me.

This is the most recent (from T'giving holiday) - Cass bought him M&Ms at the store. I think he was eating them according to color.

On the mend

I think Logan is recovering. She's on Day 4 of her antibiotic, and her horrible cough is almost gone. Her fever is gone as well, thank goodness. She went back to school on Tuesday, so she only missed 3 days, thanks to the Thanksgiving break in there.

I'm starting to feel better, too. That's a very good thing, because I've got to start getting ready for the trip.

Cass leaves for Seattle on Saturday. He's flying from there to London on Tuesday, I think. I'll leave on (next) Thursday afternoon, arriving in London on Friday. We leave on Sunday night for Frankfurt. 2 nights in Frankfurt, then on to Berlin. 3 nights in Berlin, then back for a stopover at Gatwick in London on Sunday, then on to Dallas.

Cameron's got her science fair proposal done (due Dec. 6), and her book report done (due Dec. 13). She was supposed to take them to school today. Let's hope she remembers to turn them in.

I realized the other day that when I return on December 15th - I will have done NO Christmas shopping, and I will have NO Christmas cards anywhere near ready to send out. Yay! Plus, I'll have all 3 classroom parties to get stuff for, teachers to buy for, and Luke's Christmas program (please, PLEASE don't let him have a part!) - I think this all happens on December 20th.

OK, I better stop thinking about it. I'll make myself sick again.

House of sick

Logan is still sick. This is day 10 of her fever. She's had an awful cough since the weekend, so I took her back to the doctor this morning. The doc didn't hear anything in her chest, but he did an X-ray just in case. She's got an infection in her right lung. (You nurses/doctors - does lung infection automatically = pneumonia? or is there a distinction?) She's on zithromax for 5 days, can return to school tomorrow.

Cass brought home some cold kind of illness from his trip. We jokingly refer to it as "tuberculosis". His only lasted about 2 days, the miserable portion at least. But now I've got it (tuberculosis, lol!). I literally sneezed for the first time at lunch yesterday, and by bedtime my head was going to explode. I didn't sleep much - stuffy nose from 11 pm to 1 am, was up on the computer from 2am to about 3:30 am. I took Nyquil at that point, and it made me nauseated - but I slept some. Until the alarm went off at 6:15 am. I'm starting to run a temp, too. Yippee.

So, thanks Marcus. :) (Just kidding!) Cold and flu season is just lovely, isn't it?

I turned it off

OK, I have to admit it. I turned the game off yesterday. Early in the third quarter, when Ole Miss scored to go up 14-0, Cass and I turned. it. off.

I went to get cleaned up to take the kids to the 4:00 showing of Enchanted. I was going to watch our basketball game on ESPN2, but it went to halftime as soon as I turned it on. So I switched over to the Arkansas/LSU game. I was amazed that Arkansas seemed to have that one under control.

Then the phone rang. I knew it was my sister - and as soon as I knew it was my sister, CBS broke away from the Arkansas/LSU game for an update on the Egg Bowl. I hit pause on my Tivo and answered the phone. WHAT? WE ACTUALLY WON THAT GAME?!?

She tried to give me a rundown of what had happened, but I didn't hear much of it. When I hung up, I got Cass to go back to the media room with me to watch it. The fourth quarter. Well, the last 10 minutes of the fourth quarter.

We missed the 4:00 showing of Enchanted. But we made it to the 5:40 showing. Then we came home and watched the fourth quarter again.

Tivo's going to save that one until I delete.

Egg-scuse me!

How 'bout them BULLDOGS?!?

Happy ......

.......Birthday!

10 years ago today, I was in labor. At about 11:11 pm, Cameron joined our family.

Yes, she was colicky, demanding, and very high needs for a while. But she has turned into a pretty terrific kid. One who just brought home straight As (like, high As!) on her progress report. One who finished her book report for TAG 2 weeks early, since I won't be here to help her the week she turns it in. One who does a lot of the "stuff" for her little brother that I don't usually want to do. She can recall details like you wouldn't believe. She can write stories like you wouldn't believe.

We had her birthday party 2 weekends ago, so today all she gets is turkey, dressing, and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

Happy Birthday Cameron!

Man U

Cass made it home last night, about 2 am. Pretty much all flights at O'Hare were delayed, so he was able to make it on his original flight (2 hrs late), despite United having rescheduled him.

He brought me a Manchester United jersey! :) I think I have some other t-shirts, too - but he had to wear them as extra layers in the cold. LOL!

Whatcha cookin'?

My cornbread dressing is in the freezer, and my turkey is defrosting in the fridge.

This afternoon, I made a pumpkin roll. In a little while, I'm going to make some sausage balls. Tomorrow will be spent making 3 cheese mashed potatoes, because they have to chill overnight (although I like them warmed back up anyway). I've also got to clean and cut my fresh green beans for the southern green beens I'll cook on Thurday. I've also got the ingredients to make giblet gravy, but I don't ever make it - that's Cass's job. He loves that stuff, and he can stomach preparing the giblets.

Lo, I asked my Mom about the caramel cake recipe. She said she's got several, one of which involves melting caramels. I told her that you probably meant a from-scratch recipe, so find one that involves kitchen chemistry.

What's going on in your kitchen?

Friendly skies and all that

Today, I got a phone call from United Airlines. How nice, huh? They were calling to inform me of a change in my flight schedule. Me, meaning Cass - since I'm sure this is the number they have for him, not his cell number. He's currently on a flight, somewhere over the Atlantic - so I'm not sure why they think he'd actually receive this call. You know, turn off wireless electronic devices and cell phones and all that.

Due to a delay of his flight from Heathrow to Chicago, his flight (tonight - 8:20 pm landing at 11:59 pm) from Chicago to Austin has been rescheduled. For tomorrow.

It didn't even dawn on me that he's traveling during the "Thanksgiving holiday." I'm sure that connecting through Chicago O'Hare isn't going to be much fun. And it definitely won't be fun to stay there from 7:20 pm until sometime tomorrow morning.

In other news, Logan had a throat swab yesterday, and so far today no phone call. No phone call = no strep, so she's probably got a virus.

I think I'm coming down with an ulcer.

More mystery

The mystery illness is yet unidentified. The thing about living in a big place like this is that you can rarely get in to the pediatrician in a timely manner. I called first thing this morning, and the earliest appointment I can get is 3:50 pm - and that's with another doctor in the practice. I'm not very fond of the "other" doctors at our clinic - there's one that I won't allow my children to see at all anymore - but I love our pediatrician. She's very hard to see when you don't schedule in advance.

Anyway, Logan seems perkier today, which is unusual. She's still got a temp in the 100-101 range, so she just turned her short week of school into a full week of vacation!

(I have to agree that it's all Marcus's fault! :)

I have a story for you. The street that we live on has lots of kids on it, so we let the girls play out in our yard and some of the other yards on our street when the other kids are out. Cameron was across the street playing basketball with Connor yesterday, and she was in and out of our front door.

I sit down at my compter at about 8pm to check email and stuff. The kids were watching Princess Diaries 2 on Disney Channel. After a little bit, I hear our door chime go off, and I assumed that it was one of the kids going into the garage to get a drink out of that fridge. I didn't really look up from what I was doing, but out of the corner of my eye, I see a GROWN MAN walk past the office and go into our powder room. HOLY SH*&!!! I jumped up, grabbed the phone, and said EXCUSE ME!!! He turns and walks out of the powder room, looks at me dumbfounded, and I yelled GET OUT!!!

He realized then that he had walked into the wrong house, and he started trying to apologize and explain - and I told him I just wanted him the EFF. OUT. OF. MY. HOUSE. It was one of those moments where you get an enormous surge of adrenaline, and you start trying to reconcile that your life may permanently change at that moment. I think he's lucky that I didn't grab something and try to beat the crap out of him, because I really think that I'd have bested him easily at that moment.

I'm pretty sure that he intended to go in my neighbor's house, the single guy who works at Dell and has pool parties all the time, but really - what was he on that he made it in the house, all the way to the powder room without realizing that he was in the wrong place.

I usually check the doors before I go to bed at night, but obviously I didn't do it early enough last night. I even set our security alarm for the first time in a long time last night.

I should have called the cops on his arse. That would have busted up the pool party for the night, eh?

Guess the mystery illness

Friday night, Logan started complaining of a stomach ache. We'd had nasty pizza at her soccer party, so I just thought it was from that.

Saturday morning, her tummy still hurts, but she feels well enough to go to a birthday party at Ramp Ranch (skateboarding place). When I pick her up, she tells me that she didn't have any birthday cake at the party. (Logan has never met any sugar that she won't eat - so I knew something was wrong.)

Saturday evening, she looks pale and pitiful, so I take her temp. It's 102F. I just assumed that it was probably strep, because that's how she usually progresses when she has strep. Stomach ache ---> fever ---> sore throat.

It's 24 hours later, and she's still running in the 102-103F range, but I looked in her throat with a flashlight and it looks perfect. She says that her throat doesn't hurt - her head hurts and her body is sore. She's been sleeping off and on in my bed all day.

Ideas?

@(*&&^*% ^#!!!

Got an email from Cass this morning. He's in London now.

I am going to have to go to Seattle for the MS GAB the two days befor I leave for London. I will have to change my flight to go directly from Seattle to London. I think I am ready for a break in my travel schedule.

Many curse words are going through my mind. Still. 3 hours later.

He has traveled nearly every week since school started. I don't handle the stress inside very well, which is why I've been trying to treat myself a little bit. I guess it's been working, but I know what else would work - make the travel stop.

In other news, I made cornbread dressing yesterday. It's a recipe that my Mom has always used. She xeroxed a page out of an unidentified cookbook and has used it for years. I got my Dad to fax it to me a few years ago, and I've used it a good bit. We don't usually travel to Mississippi for Thanksgiving, because of limited time.

At the rate we're going, the kids and I will get to enjoy my dressing without Cass.

Countdown

3 weeks from today, I will have arrived at London Gatwick!

I started "getting my ducks in a row" yesterday. I went to LawDepot.com and printed out a consent to medical treatment for my Mom. When Cass gets back, we'll get it notarized so she'll be able to make medical decisions for the kids, should the need arise. I have to send a copy for the school to put in their files, a copy for their teachers, and a copy for the school nurse.

I also printed out directions to our pediatrician's office. My Mom isn't very comfortable with driving outside of the area right around my house, so she's got to have stuff like that for reference. I also did directions to Luke's preschool, although I'm not sure if she's going to take him back and forth. He can miss 4 or 5 days - no big deal.

I have to leave a copy of our medical insurance information, as well as our flight info and hotel info. Never mind that we haven't booked anything except our flights over and back. We have no hotel, no flights to any other places.

I think the only other thing to do is to type up a schedule of sorts. That's really hard to do, when it needs to be individualized for 3 different kids.

Aparna says it's really cold over there. It was 88 degrees here on Tuesday. We got a "cold front" and now it's in the 60s. I think it's a different kind of cold over there, and I don't like hearing Ap say "really cold." LOL!

Too many ends to get tied up.

Catalog season

It's that time of the year. You go to your mailbox, anticipating something great. You open the mailbox and it's stuffed! Excitement! Then you pull it all out of there, and 99% of the total weight is due to catalogs.

Yesterday's catalog count: 7

Fossil, some travel catalog, Hearth Song, Lands' End, some financial catalog, Bass Pro Shops, The Company Store, JC Penney. The stack of catalogs is 2.5 inches high, and it's all going in the garbage can without one look.

I do most of my Christmas shopping online, so I don't sit around perusing catalogs. I remember going through the Sears catalog as a child, but I never got anything I actually wanted out of there, so catalog looking doesn't hold some special place in my heart or anything.

To me, gift giving has gotten kind of difficult, and in a way pointless. These days, people buy what they want when they want. You don't have to wait around or save up for any reason. You just go out to Target, Best Buy, the mall - and get it when you need it. So that makes deciding on what to give someone at holiday season especially difficult. Some people think that the solution is to set up online wish lists or registries. I'm not sure I'm 100% OK with that either. It kind of kills the surprise.

I don't know what the solution to the yearly gift dilemma is, but it definitely isn't to stuff my mailbox full of printed materials that I have to throw out.

My new best friend Beata

I have a new BFF. Her name is Beata. She is a massage therapist at Massage Heights in Round Rock, and she is a magic maker.

Back in the early summer, I started having migraines daily. After a month or so, I finally went to see my doctor. She couldn't find anything wrong with me, except for the incredible tension that I carry in my neck and shoulders. She recommended either PT or chiropractic "therapy." I told my doc that I had been led to believe that chiropractors are unnecessary, and that I'd prefer PT. She highly recommended a chiropractor in Georgetown who specializes in issues that cause migraines, and she asked that I consider giving him a try. She said that PT for my issues would take a while to give relief, while I would leave the chiropractor's office with immediate improvement.

So off I went. I saw Dr. Chiropractor for about 3 months. And yes, I did get immediate relief. He gave me exercises to do to help stretch my neck muscles and stablize my spine in that area to prevent further problems. I stopped seeing him in September.

With everything that's been going on in our household, my old problem of neck tension has crept back up. I've been doing my exercises a good bit, but this week my headaches started back. I didn't really want to go back to the chiropractor, because then that would make it true that chiropractic is a ruse to get you to come back and give them more money, so I decided to indulge in a little massage therapy on my own. This is how I was introduced to Beata.

I went to Massage Heights at 10 am this morning. I talked to her about my neck problems, and she said she could do a 1 hour deep tissue massage of my problem areas - neck, shoulders, back, and arms.

Did you know that massage can HURT? It was a good hurt, though, not a painful one. She worked my neck and shoulders quite completely, and I could tell that there was a lot of inflammation in there. While I was laying on my stomach on her table, my nose got all stuffy, and I had to breathe through my mouth. When I got up, I could feel the fluid retention in my face. It was all I could do to stand up and walk out of there - my body was like a limp noodle.

I came home, took some magnesium (good for muscles), drank a glass of cold water, got my heating pad and laid in bed. I dozed for about 2 hours. I feel so AWESOME right now! I hope it lasts, because I could surely get used to hanging out with Beata.

Other updates
I had the Upstairs Maid people come for the first time on Monday. They were to arrive at 1 pm and be done in about 1 - 1.5 hours. It took them 2.5 hrs! They cleaned all surfaces, vacuumed, mopped, dusted blinds, cleaned the ceiling fan blades, and got the cobwebs out of the ceilings. Amazing. I didn't request any certain kinds of products - it was all I could do to get them to take my key, because they only spoke Espanol. But I love that my house is all clean and straight - even on the Wednesday after. Luke has taken to removing his socks in the house, because our hardwood floors are very slick from whatever they cleaned them with. LOL!

Cass is in Helsinki, Finland today. That's all I know. When he called last night, we were having a "server" issue with the website that we host on our own personal computer server. Turns out that it wasn't our problem and we couldn't fix it - but we still had to spend 25 min of international cell phone costs trying to establish that fact. Just let me say that we've asked this website to move to a different server several times, yet they won't because why move when it's free right now? Yet they complain about server issues all the time. Ticks me off.

Where in the world is Cass?

Cass called me at about 9 pm (my time) last night. It was 5 am in Kiev. They were trying to catch a cab to the airport to fly through Munich to Stockholm. They were supposed to arrive at 4:30 am CST, 11:30 am Stockholm time. I haven't heard from him, so I assume they got there. They usually go straight from the airport to the offices of the game developer they are visiting.

He said he had spent 32 hours in the same clothes, with no shower and no sleep. Don't you feel sorry for him?!

INT returned 100 yards for TD

This is a video clip taken by an Alabama fan. He was trying to get a recording of an Alabama touchdown. Anthony Johnson had something else in mind. I hear that he nearly brought down Davis Wade Stadium. Sure wish I had been there.

INT returned 100 yards for TD

Back in the USSR

Cass has landed safely in Kiev. He says that there's a lot of snow on the ground, and that the ATM machine he used dispensed Benjamin Franklin $100 bills.

We had a debate over whether Ukraine has always been independent (he said), or if it was part of the USSR and became independent after it dissolved (she said). She was right. :)

As I was getting ready this morning, this came on the news:


It scared the crap out of me, and I freaked a little. At first they said it was located at Canary Wharf, but they later confirmed that a warehouse at the construction site of the Olympic area caught on fire. Whew!

Last minute change

I just got back from the airport. Cass is getting on a flight, the first of 3 today, that will end up with him in Kiev, Ukraine.

Yes, he is taking the trip that we were supposed to take in December. He's going to Kiev, Stockholm, Helsinki, Berlin, and London - all in the next week. Something came up (I'll have to tell you what later - big secret), and with 2 days' notice he had to get booked to go to Berlin. Since he was going to be over there already, they decided to do all the visits now.

The London trip for us in December is still on, but we aren't going all the places we were before. He thinks we can still visit Frankfurt, Germany, and Copenhagen, Denmark. It frustrates the hell out of me that they can't do any sort of advanced planning and stick to those plans - but that's the nature of his work. I guess it's fun, if you're not a planner like I am. :)

They don't have a hotel room booked for Kiev or Stockholm. LOL!

Thank goodness soccer is over. I'd be a mental case if I had to do all that, yet again, without him here.

Here's where I will nochalantly mention that Mississippi State beat Alabama yesterday, 17-12, making them BOWL ELIGIBLE. (ok, that wasn't nonchalant - but I have to pretend it was.... the less I care about football, the better the team does.)

Sleepover night

Tonight is Cameron's birthday party - a sleepover. Right now, we've got 6 girls up in the media room with blankets, sleeping bags, and pillows.

All I can say is - SEND HELP!!!

~Insert creative title here~

It's funny - I rarely have a cohesive topic about which to blog. There is usually so much stuff going on around here, that my head is literally swimming most of the time. My blog entries tend to reflect that. It's hard to title a jumbled up mess of stuff.

Cass is in California - say it with me - AGAIN. Well, technically he was in California Monday and Tuesday. Today, he flew to Seattle for some meetings with Microsoft. I don't know if he gets back tomorrow night or Friday morning. It's funny, I used to keep his flight info printed out, where I could get my hands on it in case I needed to know where he was at any given moment. Now he travels so much that I rarely bother to make the effort. Besides, he has a cell phone - and I could call him at any time - but I have to be careful not to call during meetings. He also checks his email obsessively on his Blackberry, so I get almost instantaneous email turn-around.

I'm going to take the plunge and hire a maid service. I've gotten a quote from them for service every other week, and I'm in the process of booking our first cleaning (via email - LOVE that!). I could probably get by with less frequent cleaning, but I really like some of the "extras" that they give their every other week clients, so I'm going to treat myself. Isn't that funny - a maid service is a treat. LOL!

Cameron and Logan's friend Taylor is moving this weekend. I'm surprised that I'm actually a little bit sad about it. OK, I'm a lot sad about it. She's in Cameron's grade and lives just around the corner, about 4 houses away - and she's been a very good friend to both of the girls. Cameron has such a hard time making/being friends with people that I really hate to see her go. Her family has built a new house in a small ranch town outside of San Antonio.

I took Cameron and Logan to the dentist for a checkup this morning. Since Cass was gone, Luke had to be at preschool at 9am, and the appointment was at 9:20am - I didn't make the girls go to school first thing this morning. We "slept in" until 7am. Logan has 3 cavities (her first ones in more than 5 yrs!), and 1 of them is a broken tooth. She'd complained about her tooth hurting once or twice about a month ago, but she never said anything about it again. Turns out, it's cracked. It would require a crown, but they're just going to fill it because it's loose and will fall out within a year or so. When I checked the girls into school, I got asked for a doctor's excuse for the first time in the 4+ years at this school. I love the effects like this of becoming a large school (not). We have 1200 students at an elementary (K-5th) that was designed for about 750 kids. And this is AFTER they redrew the boundaries to relieve overcrowding. Luckily, a new elementary opens close by next year, so hopefully our numbers will actually go down. But we may not even be here anyway.....

Europe trip

I'm impressed that there is a tentative game plan in place, 4 weeks before the trip!

Cass will be leaving on December 3rd, arrive in London on the 4th, and his meeting is December 5-7. I'll leave on December 6th, arrive early morning on the 7th. We'll have the weekend in London to do whatever we please.

On Monday morning, the European tour will commence. The locations on the agenda:

Helsinki, Finland
Frankfurt, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Malmo, Sweden (just across the Oresund strait from Copenhagen)
Kiev, Ukraine

To my surprise, you don't need a visa to travel to the Ukraine.

We'll return together on December 15th, the day after our 11th anniversary.

Gute Reise!!

Misc.

Well, what can I say about dinner with Robert Purvis? He's as "interesting" as ever. He took a leave of absence, left Austin last year, and spent 6 months living in Las Vegas, making his living by playing poker. When his leave was up, he had to come back to Austin for his job and its benefits. Now he's back to selling advertising for Yellow Book, tutoring math, and giving tennis lessons.

Why are my kids so obsessed with playdates? I manage to avoid a lot of them and not feel bad about it, mainly because I feel judged by other people about my parenting style and my lifestyle in general. Round Rock and Pflugerville aren't like Austin, and I'm not like a lot of people who live here. After I picked Luke up from school today, the Mom of one of his classmates wanted to exchange numbers to set a playdate (ugh). While we were exchanging our info, Luke tells the little boy to go spank his Mom (and he did it!). Ack! I'm sure the Mom was rethinking her choice of playmate on the spot. Seriously, I'm raising little Cass here - who can handle that job without medication? :)

Cameron's 10th birthday is on Thanksgiving Day. Since it's really difficult to get kids to attend a birthday party anywhere near the Thanksgiving holiday, I agreed to let her have a party early this year (I usually can put it off until after Thanksgiving). So, this weekend, we're having a sleepover/movie party on Friday night.

We haven't had good luck with birthdays this year. In August, we spent a lot of money to book a trip to Sea World for Logan and Luke's birthdays. Everything got totally washed out by a tropical storm, and we ditched it a day early and came back home. I complained a little via email, and a month later I got a call from Sea World offering to send us some t-shirts. That was in September, and no t-shirts so far. What The Hell?

I hope the sleepover goes better than that.

The US dollar is weak. Like this is new news?!? We still have scars from the blood-letting we took the summer of 2004. The exchange rate was around 1.85 back then. ₤3 for a Coke? 3 x 1.85 = $5.55 (and still no ice). Prices for stuff over there are not adjusted for the difference, they are about the same - the value of the money you're paying with is different. The exchange rate this summer was hovering around 2, which was even more painful.

Do you think the evangelicals will back a third party candidate? I really, really hope so.

Interesting person from MSMS is....

Robert Purvis!


I'll write more about our dinner conversation later....

Happy Birthday

Today is Cass's 36th birthday. You know you're a grown-up when your birthday cards come from your in-laws and your financial advisor. LOL!

We don't usually make a big deal out of our birthdays. We'll probably go out to eat somewhere and call it a night. We've got an 8am soccer game tomorrow.

On Saturday night, we're going to dinner with a rather "interesting" person we know from MSMS. Any guesses?

Trick or Treaters

I'm sure you can guess that I'm relieved that Halloween is over. :) At least the kids had a good time. It didn't get dark here until about 7:30pm. The girls went Trick or Treating with their friend Taylor, and I took Luke around our block by myself. Cass stayed home and passed out candy. We barely gave out 3 bags' worth of candy.

Here are our Trick or Treaters:

"Dark Vader"

Enchanted Butterfly, Vampiress (our bonus kid), and Charm School Witch

The Sith Lord made an additional appearance at our house

Happy Halloween and other random neuronal firings (RNFs)

• Tonight, we will have "Dark Vader" (aka Darth Vader), an Enchanted Butterfly, and a Charm School Witch. Where do they come up with the names for these costumes?

• My Halloween spirit is inadequate.

• I finished my journaling course this morning. I'd been putting it off for about a week. While it got me to start up a journal here, I didn't learn much else from it. The instructor blathered on about making your own paper from scratch, choosing pens and paper and notebooks, examining your emotional quotient, etc. Really, just point them to Google Blogger and tell them to sign up. Done.
  

• I'm getting a new computer. Bye, bye iMac Mini. Sorry we didn't hit it off.

• Happy Freakin' Halloween

Weekend

I need some time to recover from the weekend!

Friday evening, Cameron's soccer team had "field duty" so we had to go help with preparing the fields for Saturday's games. Most weekends, it would be a quick process, but this particular weekend was the 3rd annual Spook-Out Tournament. They decorated the fields, toilet papered the trees, put up orange and black streamers, orange and black balloons, and had several moonwalk/bouncy slide thingys. All of the Everitts went out there and worked for about an hour and a half (except for Cass, who worked for 30 min, then took a conference call in the car for an hour). The kids had fun TPing the trees. I was thrilled that they got that kind of training.

Logan was our only child actually playing in the tournament. Cameron had a real game in Georgetown at 11:30am, so Cass took Cameron (and Luke), while Logan and I went to her first tournament game at 10:30am. It was 3 v. 3, no coaching, and they played on smaller fields, by the smaller field rules. It was a little bit chaotic, but it was fun. They had Halloween candy, t-shirts, and face painting. All the kids in U8 and under got a trophy. Logan played again at 2:20pm and at 7:40pm. When we got home at 8:45pm, Cameron and Logan went around the corner to spend the night with their friend Taylor.

Cass has gotten hooked on this computer game called Portal. He and the kids have been playing it most of the weekend, when we weren't doing soccer stuff. He doesn't usually play many computer games, but he's interested in the company that makes Portal as a possible job opportunity, so he's doing a little "homework" by playing it. :) At least it's not a first person shooter game - it actually requires thought and logic.

And to answer a few comments about my trips - yes, I will be blogging the Europe trip! I'll probably just do it here, and post pictures too, since the kids won't be going with us. As for the ski trip, it will be Jan. 14 - 19, and we're flying into the airport at Vail. Last time we skied at Winter Park, we flew to Denver and drove - and it was the most scary driving experience I've ever had! We said if we ever went back, we'd find a place we could fly straight to, with no driving over mountains required. Alice, I'll email you when it's closer to trip time.

Time to dust off the passport!

Cass just found out last week that there's going to be a work "thing" in London sometime in late November or early December. He actually asked me if I wanted to go (ha! of course!), so I'm going to join him for a few days in my favorite city.

After the thing in London, he's possibly going to go visit some game developers in Europe, which is pretty typical of his business trips over there. He usually goes to Stuttgart, Paris, Helsinki, Copenhagen, and/or a few other places. They're going to try to get together a "developer tour" this time as well, and he wants me to tag along for that. Could be fun. It'll be 1 night/1 day in each place, but I'll get to see a bunch of places I've never been before.

He's decided that he's going to take off the months of December and January - just take leave without pay - and try to decompress from work stuff. We've already booked a trip to Vail for 5 nights/4 ski days. I'm pretty excited about this, because I love to ski - and it will be a new place that we've never been before.

My Mom's going to get lots of kid-time pretty soon. :)

Autumn arrived this morning

Last night, I went to bed and it was summer. This morning, I awoke to autumn. Very weird.

In Austin, we get 2 distinct seasons - summer and January. Usually the weather doesn't cool off significantly until a few days before Cameron's birthday in late November. I always think I should plan an outdoor party for her birthday, because the weather is so pretty then. Then the week of the birthday, cold weather arrives. Winter kicks in when January arrives, we get out the jackets, then we can put them back up in February. Shorts and flip-flops are the uniform of Texas for a reason.

This has been a crazy weather year for us. I think we only hit 100 degrees a handful of days this summer, if that much. Normally we're in drought conditions and water restrictions and counting consecutive days of 100+ temps - but summer 2007 was rain, rain, and more rain. We had all kinds of flooding and extended road closings, even out here in Round Rock. I quit going to the pool daily in July, when I usually keep going until well after school starts. Meanwhile, Georgia is about to run out of water.

Now we've got an actual autumn this year. It was in the 80s last night, and the high today barely reached 60. Very Weird Weather. Global warming, anyone?

I am the Halloween Grinch

It's that time of the year again. And again I am just not in the mood for Halloween.

In my neighborhood, it's like there's some unofficial competition for who can get the most Halloween-themed decorations in their front yard each year. And each year it gets worse. Nearly every house on my street has some sort of ginormous (you know, gigantic/enormous) blow-up thingy that rises each morning and stays there all day. There are the fake spider webs stretching across the front porches, and the ones that look like a witch crashed her broom headfirst into the ground. This year, orange lights seem to be all the rage - even though they look very Christmasy to me. My house, on the other hand, remains completely bare. It's not that I have anything against the decorations, they're cute - but I just don't have the desire to make the effort to decorate my house like that for a 1 night holiday.

Last night, we got "Boo-ed." That's when some anonymous somebody leaves a Boo bag filled with goodies on your doorstep, rings the doorbell, and runs away. In turn, you're supposed to Boo somebody else, and so on. I'm sorry, but the Boo trick ends here.

The highlight of Halloween for us has always been the nVidia Pumpking Carving Party that they have at Cass's work. It's always a day or two before Halloween, and we go up to the office with all the other families, and we all carve pumpkins together. Those pumpkins are usually the only Halloween decorations that we have at our house. It used to be a lot of fun, when there were only 15 or so families that showed up. Now the Austin office is so big (nearly 200 people) that the party is total chaos. Plus, the Austin office manager has recently put the kibosh on beer buying/drinking in the break room - so Cass wants to boycott it for that reason alone.

So, if you're in my subdivison, mine is the house with no decorations and no pumpkins out front. I'll leave the light on so that the Trick-or-Treaters will know that we might have candy - unless I eat it first.

Shoe love

Zappos. THE single most wonderful creation in all of the history of the internets. Seriously. I mean, shoes, shipped and delivered to your house within 12-36 hours of pressing the "submit order button."

I mean, really, what's not to love?

I got these yesterday:
(smaller picture to come, when Blogger image upload is working)


They'll be on my feet by 3pm today!

Irritants

Today is my day to bitch and moan a little, so if you don't want to hear (read) it, click away now! LOL!

I actually called the Post Office yesterday to complain about our mail carrier. In our neighborhood, we have a community mail box area - no personal mailboxes on our houses. There's a spot in the neighborhood with a huge box system, and we each have a numbered box there. It's located at our community center, so there's a "street" that goes through right by the mail boxes, with parking along it. We apparently got a new mail carrier a few weeks ago, and she's been backing her truck up, perpendicular to the boxes, which causes the front of her truck to stick out into the "street" that goes through the community center. Very Annoying. You can't drive through there without having to maneuver around her vehicle, while she's putting out the mail (which, BTW, takes her twice as long as the old carrier). So I called our Post Office. And reported her for it. And a few other things (like her frequent visitor, and her constant cell phone talking). I didn't have to leave my name, so hopefully my mail delivery will continue as scheduled.

Irritant and "friend" (yes, I took a picture!)

Next irritant, parking at Luke's preschool. I started my kids at this preschool when they opened their doors - Cameron was in the 4 yr class, and Logan was in the 3 yr class. There were 6 kids TOTAL (2 of them were mine), so obviously no parking issues. This year, 5 yrs down the road, there are over 200 families with kids enrolled at my preschool. For the longest time, they have allowed the parents to park in the 15 or so spaces in front of the church and take their kids in for drop-off. The problem is - when you park in front, you have to cross the traffic that's driving toward the back parking lot (where you're supposed to park, according to the handbook - if you bother to read it). Very dangerous for the kids, who sometimes dart out in front of the cars. So this year (5 yrs on), they have FINALLY required that everyone park in the back - like I've been doing the whole time. BUT there are some parents who, instead of pulling into one of the marked parking spaces in the back lot, selfishly park along the side of the entrance/exit area of said back lot and impede the traffic flow in and out of there. It's ridiculous that people are so discourteous. I'm about to stew to the point of asking the director to do something about it. That requires a trip into the main building, though, and I haven't been in there all year. Luke is in his classroom outside in one of the portables - yes, they even have portables in preschool around here.

This is quite liberating, getting it all out there - so much that I've forgotten what my other irritants are. Well, I haven't forgotten them. More like they don't feel so irritating anymore. However, I may be back if Cass's company follows through with their request - "can you come out to California the week of Thanksgiving? Yeah, thanks."

My house

Write about the things/features you like best about your home.

I like my house. I really, really like my house. We moved here 4.5 years ago, as an upgrade from our house in Pflugerville, and we are quite happy with that decision. I've included a picture of our house below, as well as the floorplan from the builder's website.

I like the size of it - it's 3600 sq. ft., which is just enough for the 5 of us. Everybody has their own bedroom, and we even have an office - that isn't a living/dining room used as office space. It's an actual office room of its own (well, it's the 5th bedroom, but it's better used as an office). In the floorplan below, our house was built with the 5th bedroom option that closed in the living room and put the door in the hallway that goes to the laundry and powder rooms. The powder room also has a shower, rather than a linen closet.

We really like the open floorplan of our house. The only 2 rooms downstairs that are closed-off are the master bedroom and the office. Everything else - the foyer, piano room, kitchen, breakfast area, and great room - are all open. They also mostly have 20 ft. ceilings, too. I like having the master bedroom downstairs, away from the kids' rooms.

Cass really loves his media room. It's not shown on the floorplan included below, but it's just to the left of the gameroom on the 2nd floor. He's got a projector set up in there, so it's just like our own movie screen. I think that was the primary reason that Cass signed up for the whole house upgrade/move from Pflugerville plan - the media room.

Things I would change - it needs a bigger laundry room, it needs a bigger garage, and it needs more storage space. The girls also could use a bigger bathroom area, since they will be teenagers sooner than we want. Cass also wants a bigger shower. If lot size weren't an issue, I'd have a 1 story house, too.

As much as I love my house, I still get excited about looking at new homes. It's just one of my "things."

Luke and his hookers

Luke is 5, and he is very much like his Daddy. I know that that is both a very good thing and a very bad thing. But he thinks just like him - very methodical, this relates to that, analytical thinking.

Cass and I try to keep a running list of the little "things" that come out of his mouth that make us chuckle. Since I don't have much to write about, as I'm still over-scheduled at the moment, I'll share a few of his funnies. Some of them need some background for understanding.

We recently started making Luke go into his closet, pick out his clothes, and dress himself on a daily basis. He's very neat and orderly, puts his dirty clothes in the basket, and hangs up the empty hangers. One day Cass was in there with him while he was dressing and made a comment about how he was so neat to hang up his empty hangers. Luke replies, "Yeah, I put the hookers on the side where Mama can find them." (hookers = empty hangers)

He asks a lot of what I call "thinking questions." Those are the kind that come from really deep thought, and they're ones that I usually can't answer. I can totally picture Cass coming up with question after question like this when he was little. My favorite one of recent is, "Mama, when did they invent toys?"

I usually get the majority of my Luke funnies after I pick him up from preschool, and we're driving back home. He's usually thinking about what they learned in school today, and he either just dumps info on me or starts asking me about what he learned. They talked about fall/autumn the first week of school, and on the way home, he says, "Mama, do you know what fall means? It's when winter is coming and the squirrels get their coconuts and put them away." (coconuts = nuts)

If you know Cass, you'll know why this one is funny: "Daddy, do you know where God lives?" Cass: "No, where does God live?" Luke: "In space."

I think the hooker one is my all time favorite, though.

Home Sweet Mississippi

We left last Thursday morning for a trip to Mississippi. My Mom started laying on the guilt trip back in August, because we hadn't been to Mississippi since March - so I finally caved and agreed to go for Mississippi State Homecoming on October 6th. The kids had a half day on that Friday and a holiday on Monday, so it was a good weekend to go. Cameron suggested that we fly, so I checked fares and booked us flights for Thursday 10/4 and Tuesday 10/9.

The thing about visiting Mississippi, for us, is that we've got family all over - and they all expect to see us when we're there. So instead of going somewhere and relaxing, we get to go (pack up, load up, drive) somewhere new each day. We were in Indianola on Thursday and Friday nights, Starkville on Saturday night, and Waynesboro Sunday and Monday nights. At the end of the trip, I didn't know which clothes were clean or dirty, because I was just shoving our stuff in the suitcase to try to keep up with everything we brought. We couldn't possibly have squeezed in another meeting or stopping place, without me losing it.

That said, it was a nice visit. We got to attend Indianola Academy's homecoming, where they honored my high school music teacher at halftime. I saw my best friend, Lacy, whose husband has recently decided to go to seminary to become a chaplain. We went to Greenwood to have lunch with our MSMS friend Mike M., who just bought a house. We saw my sister and brother-in-law, who are moving from Starkville to Southaven soon. We tailgated with the ERC crew before the Mississippi State game. The Bulldogs won their game, and they have a WINNING RECORD (4-2) thus far this season. (I just jinxed them, didn't I?) And we visited the in-laws in Wayesboro, where the kids got to go fishing and caught about 30 bream between them. Lots of news to digest, eh Marcus? :)

Since we got back on Tuesday, we've been playing catch-up. The kids have lots of schoolwork, they've missed soccer practice, and they've got to make up their piano lessons. I will be glad to get back on normal schedule. Then Cass leaves on Saturday to go to University of Illinos-Urbana Champaign to give a talk - so I get to do the soccer games on Saturday. Cameron and Luke have games at the same time.

Drive Friendly. The Texas Way.

APD to Ticket More Bad Drivers

AUSTIN -- Austin Police will soon start an initiative to ticket drivers for common violations in an effort to change Austin's driving culture. Starting Monday, police will be focusing on highways to write tickets for violations such as following too closely and failing to signal.

Starting yesterday, Oct. 1, Austin Police are on the lookout for tailgaters and people not using their turn signals on IH-35. They are going to make a fortune, I tell ya. Austin drivers are not exactly known for their driving prowess. In this land of little rain, just let a good rain shower come along, and you'll see what I mean.

For the record, I faithfully use my turn signal. That's one habit I acquired pretty quickly after moving out here. Texas is a big state, and it has only 1 interstate that spans the entire length of the state - and that's IH-35 (they instist on including the "H" for interstate highway out here). There is a lot of heavy traffic on that interstate all the time, so you have to drive like it. Using your signal is a requirement, or else you're going to trade paint out there.

Y'all know I grew up in Mississippi, and people there believe that the turn signal is an unnecessary technological advancement. The only time I ever used my signal was when I was taking Driver's Ed the summer before 9th grade. After we got out of that class, we all knew that nobody around town used their signal, it would never be required of us again. In a place where you recognize everybody's vehicles and know where they are driving, you don't need to have a signal to tell you that Mrs. Abbott will be turning down Azalea Drive (well, now she lives on Cherry Drive, since they moved a few years back).

The one car accident that I had with major car-to-car contact, happened largely because I failed to use my left turn signal. It happened one day after school, I gave a ride to my friend Kerri (10th grade) - who had just had a fight with her boyfriend Stephen (8th grade). I was driving Kerri home, and Stephen (no license) was following us in his car. I slowed down to turn left (no signal), and Stephen pulled up beside me on the left/driver's side, presumably to argue with Kerri some more. I didn't see him, so I turned left into his car (his mama's Lincoln). While my failure to signal probably contributed somewhat to the accident, there's no doubt that Stephen's extreme idiocy was the primary cause. His mom was not very happy about having to pay that much to fix my little Chevy Chevette.

So while I am a convert to the world of those who used their turn signals, I know I am in danger of contributing to this fortune the APD will make - because I am a tailgater. Supposedly, APD got a grant for new radar equipment that records speed of 2 cars, distance and time between them. Yikes. However, Texas law isn't precise when it comes to following too closely. It merely says "drivers should maintain enough space to avoid colliding with other vehicles, factoring in speed and road conditions when they make that determination." In Driver's Ed, we learned some complicated formula of leaving 1 car length per 10mph that you're traveling - but now I think they go with the 2 second rule instead. That seems much easier to me. I hope I can break my old habit.