I'm such an idiot!

I had an orthodontist appointment LAST Monday . . . like March 21 or something . . . and I just remembered today! This is not the first time this has happened. I am completely losing my mind.

So we negotiated...

I told Allison I would negotiate with her, because she is doing really great in school, she is helping me so much with Steven being in San Antonio, and because she is just an all around great kid. So, $15 or getting her ears double pierced. She chose the piercing, of course!

So we went to Claire's yesterday morning to have that done . . . stopped at Starbucks along the way, of course. Then we went shopping . . . we went to Super Target (ya know, I need to get one of THOSE hats! lol!) and Kohl's and Old Navy. She ended up with a couple of skirts and a few shirts and some socks. Then we went to Chelsea's for lunch.

This morning I took her with me to Starbucks, then we went to Blockbuster and rented a few movies . . . now we are sitting here in the den (alone! Steven took Ethan and Claire with him to the store) watching a Harry Potter movie. Ok, ok . . . so I'm blogging, too! But I'm not one to just sit and watch TV and do nothing. It's nice to have this kind of time with her . . .

All she has to do is look at me!

I have a deal with Allison . . . if she gets straight A's on her report card, she gets $20. Plus, she can get her ears pierced again . . . she wants them double pierced.

So they get report cards today, and she has all A's and one B.

She just keeps looking at me with that beautiful, perfect little face and those beautiful, perfect blue eyes . . . "Can I have $15, at least?" "Can I please get my ears pierced anyway?" . . . and I want to give her EVERYTHING! She is such a good kid - the best, actually - and she deserves it all!

But then am I a bad mom for giving in???

I just want her to know how much I truly love her!

Maybe we can compromise . . . $15 or ear piercing. (And I know she will choose the piercing!) That won't make me a bad mom, will it???

He doesn't know how it happened...

Ethan (along with some of his friends) got caught throwing "dirt clods" and tree bark at the cars driving along Tree Ln. during recess. He has no clue how this came to be . . . . Mom said she remembers her car getting "bombed" many times while she was driving down Tree Ln. before they put the fence up. Guess the fence worked for a while . . . now they just throw the stuff over the fence!

Conversations with Claire...at 3:41am

Yes . . . 3:41 am.

Claire: Mommy? How did you and Daddy make me?

Me: Claire. It's 3:41 am. Can we talk about this in the morning?

Claire: (sigh) Okay.



Here's hoping she forgot all about this question!

I won! I won! I won!

My first ebay auction!!!


Yee-haw!!!

(A Starbucks cap.) lol!

San Antonio and Stuff

It's Spring Break, so we headed to San Antonio last Tuesday. (What was that? The 15th?) Anyway, it takes Ethan his usual 3 days to settle in, so it was Friday before he was normal again. We will go back to Houston tomorrow (Sunday), so it will be Wednesday before he settles down there.

Our house is now being framed. Pretty exciting for the kids! lol!

Today, we took them to Pedernales Falls - their first hiking trip. They actually loved it, and did much better than I had even hoped! Of course, Steven did most of his rock hoping while carrying Claire, but we all had a great time. Ethan wants us to "Hurry up and sell that damn house!" so we can live in San Antonio all the time! lol!

Oh! Had my first foray into eBay and lost. Waaahhh!

Went to Steven's new office . . . that was pretty cool.

And Allison is now drying her own hair! So yee-haw . . . more freedom for me! lol!

Conversations with Claire . . .

Claire: Me and my sister always say "Duh!", because our brother
always is an idiot!






I don't think she is really 3!

"Uh, here mom. You might need to see this"

Ethan says as he hands me a form (in triplicate) from the school that I need to sign and return.

Apparently, he set off the fire alarm on the way to PE today . . .

Fucking MSN . . .

Is so fucking fucked up, it is fuckity fuck fucked!

Conversations with Ethan . . .

While I'm in the bathtub, Ethan walks in, very weepy . . .

Ethan: Mom, if I have to give my life to save one of you guys,
will you pray for me every night???

Me: (where the hell did he come up with that?!)
Of course we would, Ethan! But, I would never let that
happen to begin with! I will always keep you safe . . .
(blah, blah, blah . . . I go on to say all the things moms are
supposed to say at times like these . . . )

Ethan: (happy again)
Are you done talking now???

Me: Well . . . are you done listening now???

Ethan: Yes.

And off he goes, as happy as he can be . . . and I'm left wondering if I just happened to say the exact right things or is this a bipolar swing???

Conversations with Claire . . .

Claire: I hate Blue's Clue's! It's stupid!
Why does it even have to come on???

Me: Because some kids like it.

Claire: Well . . . that's because they're stupid!

Sometimes you just gotta slap somebody!

So we're having dinner at Chili's in Seguin, and we made the mistake of letting Ethan sit next to Claire . . . actually it wasn't that bad, I'm just surprised that we let it happen.

Anyway, Claire keeps reaching over and just lightly "slapping" Ethan. It wasn't bothering him, but Steven finally told Claire to "stop hitting Ethan". Claire replied, in all seriousness, "But sometimes I just hafta slap somebody."

(That is one of those moments you don't want your child to see you totally cracking up!)

So she stops for about a minute, then she leans over toward Ethan, looks up at him with those big brown eyes, does her little finger at him like "come here" . . . it's all very innocent . . . she's probably going to just whisper something in his ear . . . so he leans toward her . . . and she slaps him!

Thereby proving my theory that girls, even as young as 3 years old, can make a boy do whatever they want! rofl!

How we new Claire was a San Antonian

Daddy, your whiskers are 'wheeeeeeeely' like a cactus!

I really should keep up with this better . . .

Really . . . I'm serious.

Remy cat, Remy cat, where you at?

So I take Allison to Theater class, and Steven decides he's going to clean out the closet under the stairs. He takes everything out . . . totally empties the closet. At the very back of the closet, there is a little door that goes into the walls under the last few steps. Somehow or other, Remy got in there, then got trapped when Steven put everything back into the closet and blocked the door. And I have no idea that he has done any of this.

I get home and Steven says he can't find Remy. So I'm like, what do you mean you can't find her? Don't worry about it, she's in here somewhere, they don't go outside. He says he keeps hearing little, tiny "mews" coming from somewhere, but he doesn't know where . . . she might be inside the walls. I'm like "What?!?" and thinking he is totally insane . . . inside the walls. Riiiiiiiiiight!

Then we realize that Frida will only sit on the bottom 2 steps, and I start hearing the little "mews" . . . but they are really quiet and muffled. That's when Steven tells me he cleaned out the closet, and maybe Remy went through that door and is under the stairs. OK - well if you think that might have happened, GET HER OUT!

So we pull everything back out of the closet, open the door and Remy pops her little head out . . . but doesn't want to come all the way out! We actually had to pull her out of there! Silly cat.

Jello No Bake "Cheesecake"

Really isn't cheesecake at all . . . it's really just cheesecake flavored pudding . . . with a thicker texture. But it works - it satisfies that need for 'creamy'. And it's really good with little mini chocolate chips added!

It's official . . . we're goin'!

To San Antonio!

(So I'm a little slow on the updates!)

Steven starts his new job at Valero on January 17, 2005. We've found a house and are working on getting that started . . . we are building a new one, and we go to the Ryland Design Center on the 13th to pick out all the stuff . . . brick, floors, cabinets, counter tops, all that. We also found an apartment, and the furniture that we are renting for it will be delivered on the 14th.

Now we just have to get this house listed. That will probably happen tomorrow or Thursday. I love this house . . . so much has happened here . . . Claire was born here . . . I'm going to miss it! But I think I'm going to love San Antonio more!

I always knew the kids were cute . . .

Had the kids pictures taken at Target a few weeks ago, and went to pick them up today. Apparently, they liked 2 of them so much that they had extra 8 X 10's made to use in the studio!

Flatonia, Tx

Took a little trip to San Antonio this week . . . and somewhere between Houston and SA, along I-10, there is a little town called Flatonia, TX. The town is so small, I don't even consider stopping there for a bathroom break. However, on the advice of one John Caudell, we (Steven and I) stopped in Flatonia to get a barbecue sandwich at Joel's - I have always seen the billboard advertising Joel's Barbecue, but have always been kind of afraid to stop . . . it's just a tiny little shack with a few picnic tables . . . 5 or 6 inside, and maybe 3 or 4 outside. Anyway, we were starving and barbecue sandwiches sounded really good, so we stopped. John was right: Joel makes about the best sliced barbecue sandwich I've ever had, and it's not even on a real hamburger bun - just 2 pieces of sliced bread. But pair that sandwich with a Dr Pepper, and it's about the best thing I've ever had! They also have pickeled eggs there - regular chicken eggs, along with quail eggs, but we didn't try those.

For dessert, we drove to the other side of the freeway to Dairy Queen and had the girl there (I should have gotten her name) make us a couple of super thick, Blizzard like chocolate malts, with a super extra lot of malt powder . . . this girl is a "Soft Serve Artist"! Most people don't undertand what a "super extra lot" of malt powder means, but she has it down! She is a genius with ice cream, chocolate syrup and malt powder!

Needless to say, Flatonia, TX is going to be a regular stop for us when travelling between Houston and San Antonio!