Methodical Missy

Just a mom in Texas that wants to die knowing I lived life to the fullest. This is mostly my attempt to keep my family & friends up to date on what's going on at our house. If you're one of those people that don't like personal blogs, I'm not here to entertain your a$$, so just move on.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Getting Off Easy

One year ago today:

1. Katrina tore it's way through New Orleans.
2. I hit the road with one child, one cat and one dog to try to evactuate and turned around after 45 minutes because I had only made it one block.
3. I thanked god the hurricane took a turn eastward and we were no longer in it's direct path.
4. I opened my house to my husband's family because most of them lived in areas predicted to flood badly.
5. I had a panic attack in my closet and called Jaime because EVERYONE was arriving with animals. (Yep, I forgot about the animals)
6. I had no less than 7 dogs, 2 cats and 3 birds living at my house which I like to keep immaculate.
7. I had 21 people living in my house including me.
8. I was totally frazzled, unorganized and exhausted and I had to start a new job the following Monday.
9. I accepted my surroundings and my family and we made it work. Everyone had a job to do, whether it was cooking, cleaning, taping windows or watching the kids.
10.I felt empty because everyone left the next morning and I had already become used to being surrounded by such a great family 24/7.
11.Grace and I waved goodbye to everyone and looked at each other and said, "Now what do we do?"

I'm so lame, I only got a few pictures.

Suzy taking care of her cousins.

Juancho never stopped smiling.

Our solution to not washing 100 cups per day.

Richie taping the windows

Aidan Christopher

Meet my friend's (Jan - who's practically a sister to me) new baby boy. Holding him is his beautiful sister, Ariana.
Welcome to the world Aidan Christopher. You will be so loved! I think my heart is bursting already at the site of these two.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Living For Weekends Like This

We had a great weekend. Friday night we went to a friends house in the country. He has a huge pond literally dug in his front lawn. So, we grabbed some beer and went fishing. It felt so nice to sit under the stars and there was enough of a breeze to keep mosquitos away. Grace caught 3 fish! The rest of us? Well, I think we caught 1 between the 3 of us. Grace was feeling pretty good about herself.
Saturday night, Ash and Kyle came over while Ken and Tammy celebrated their anniversary at their house (clearing throat). Nice going guys! Rock on! What's even cooler is that the kids watched a movie upstairs, so Jaime and I had our own little movie night. Maybe not as great as Tammy and Ken's but nice nonetheless.
Sunday, Grace let us sleep in until after 10:00 am. I can't remember ever sleeping in that late. What's scary is that we probably would have slept even longer if the phone hadn't rang. I had trouble falling asleep at night as it was.
Kilee came over and the girls played for a while and then I took Grace to Trevor's birthday party. Everyone was there, so it was nice to hang with the parents while the kids went nuts in the gym. I really hated to see the party end. We have awesome friends! The day ended at Grandma's house where we got a home cooked meal and lemon cream pie for dessert. That's what I call a great weekend.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Rant No 1

To the nincompoops that don't know how to park in my parking garage:
Why is it that you think it's ok to park outside the lines in a parking space? I drove into the garage this morning and no less than 5 cars were ALL parked outside the lines or on the lines. I understand if you have a larger than normal car and maybe it's hard to tell from the driver's seat. I have this problem myself because my car is so wide. BUT, once you get out of your car, CHECK YOUR PARKING JOB!!! If you didn't stay in the lines, get back in your car and park right. Geez!

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Faith

Today is not such a great day, so I'm posting this picture from the March of Dimes walk to cheer me up.



I miss you Faith.

p.s. It never gets easier.

Goes with the Aftermath

Since blogger isn't cooperating and won't let me post my pictures with the Birthday post below, I'm entering them separately.



Imitation Cookie

Coookie likes to play house with her pretend kittens. Can you spot the real Cookie?

Monday, August 21, 2006

Birthday Party Aftermath

I must say the birthday party was fabulous. I was told several times by the girls that this was the best party ever and that made me feel good, not for the recognition, but because I had 13 girls and 1 boy in my backyard and they were having the time of their lives and I had something to do with that. The decorations were fabulous, beachballs & wateguns made perfect giveaways and the cake {equipped with glowing candles) was tres cool.

We only had once incident when one girl announced, "this is the worst party ever." I'll call her "C" to keep her anonymous. Grace immediately started crying, however, the 11 other girls were quick to lay down the law to the one dissing the party. It was kinda cute & very adult the way they handled it. About 3-4 of the other girls spoke up and told the one not having fun that she needed to apologize and be nice to Grace while the others all huddled around Grace & gave her hugs. It blew over quickly and C quickly learned it wasn't a good idea to diss the birthday girl's party in front of her friends.

I cannot tell you how many times the girls told me this was the best party ever. I think there is something to be said for not making a birthday party too structured & just letting kids make their own fun.

After all was said and done, some friends stuck around and Jaime, who makes the world's best margaritas got to work with the blender. One friend, Lisa, told me I looked relaxed after having just hosted a party and that made me feel good because that was the goal; to really enjoy the party & not get caught up running back and forth all night long. I got lots of pictures, which I plan to add this week as soon as I get a lunch alone here at the office. Check back later for those.

Thanks to everyone that came and made Grace's 8th birthday party so memorable!!! My daughter is blessed to have so many good friends. We had a blast!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Available for your kids pleasure

Am I the only one that thinks this is wierd? Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Politics of a Birthday Party

So I'm planning Grace's 8th birthday party. I am trying my best to keep it simple because I'm tired of going overboard on this child's parties.
Let me give you an idea of how overboard we have been in the past. For her 1st birthday, we cooked briskits, pitched tents, put out box fans, baby pools and a moonwalk. We invited about 80 people (Oh yeah, we were proud parents) and over 80 people came. Most of the time, they say you can expect a 50% return on invitations you send out. Well, we got over 100%. I had never been more tired in my life. My sister-in-laws stayed late not just to help me clean up, but also to help me open the mountain of presents left by the front door.
Last year, we kept it small (about 12 kids) and had it at a bowling alley. I won't be doing that again either. Two moms actually showed up, dropped off their kids and didn't even bring a present. I was basically a free babysitter for a couple hours. Nice!
This year, I'm having a simple pool party at the house. I've already made sure I have reinforcements on hand to watch over every aspect of the party. I'm looking forward to this one.

First Day of 3rd Grade

Last Thursday was Grace's first day of 3rd grade. I have been anxiously waiting for this day to come because it means NO MORE FULL WEEK DAYCARE PAYMENTS. Those $145 per week checks are hard to write, but most of me doesn't mind because I know my daughter is in the best hands.
Anyway, Grace wanted nothing to do with me that morning. She couldn't wait to get out of the house and on her way to school and she didn't want me to drop her off. She wanted to take the bus in with her friends. I never thought I'd see the day, mostly because her first day of Kindergarten was a fiasco. You see, I let Grace take the daycare bus to school because I knew that if I took her, she'd cling, cry, scream and do pretty much anything to keep me from leaving her. I thought this would be the best thing. Besides, we had practiced the route and done several walk-through's so she would know her way to class the next day. Sooooo...the next day, I drop her off at daycare and I stealthily follow the bus to her school to watch her get off and go inside. My poor baby. I watched these older kids get off the bus and they all ran off into the school, then here comes this tiny little kindergartener all by herself, trying to catch up to the big kids because I'm sure she thought the school would go into lockdown & she'd never make it in if she didn't make it in with the big kids. Her backpack & lunch bag trailing behind her, she made it in, but I knew in my heart something was wrong.
I got back on the road and called the front office. By the time someone picked up, I told them I was worried about my daughter, Grace. They knew exactly who I was talking about. They said someone found her crying in the hallway and escorted her to class. Needless to say, I felt like the worst mother EVER. I cried all the way to work and couldn't wait to get home that day and tell her how sorry I was.
4:00 rolls around and Grace's bus comes to a stop in front of our house and I expect her to start crying about how her morning went. Well, she gets off, happier than ever and can't wait to tell me all about Kindergarten. That's my girl!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Earning her allowance

Last night, I went upstairs to see Grace's newly made bed. She had gone up there to make it before I would see it when I tucked her in. She knows this is a requirement to getting all of her allowance. Check out the picture. She pulled up the right corner of the sheet and comforter because she was trying to imitate the way I do it for her when I turn her bed down for the night. Only, she obviously doesn't get why I do it. Judging from how small of an area she pulled back, I'm guessing she thinks I do it for looks.

Just like mama

This morning I caught Grace talking to Harley. Normally, she could care less about Harley, but since she was in such a great mood, she wanted to spread the love.

Grace said (in the tone of voice an adult uses when talking to a baby),
"Hello Harley. How's my wittle Harley? You doin' good? That's a good boy. I love you"

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Spontaneous Bursting of the Heart

Grace said, "Mom, when I grow up, I want to be just like you because you're the perfect mom."

I thought my heart would burst right there and at the same time I felt sadness. Sadness, because one day she will realize her mom is not perfect. I'm not the see all/know all person she sees me as right now. I dread the day Grace realizes I'm just a human being that makes mistakes and and is still naive about so many things I should really know about by now.

It's War now

Last weekend, I attempted to cut back several of my front yard bushes and trees. They had become seriously unruly. Shrubs were leaning way over the walkway, tree branches were smothering my hibiscus and garlic was becoming one gigantic smelly plant. After several hours spent in the yard wacking, trimming, and pehaps some cursing, my yard has been seriously pruned. One may even describe it as bare. I hate it! I need it to be Spring again so I can plant some pretty flowers and start over.

As a result of my escapades, I am covered in bites. I have mosquito bites, spider bites and ant bites. Oh yeah. It's really pretty people. Red bumps everywhere! Not to mention the wasp sting still hasn't healed all the way. Thank god I was able to avoid the tiny white caterpillars all over my hibiscus. One of those bushes is infested and I'm sure it won't be long before it spreads. Speaking of infestations, my sago palm is covered in scale.

Well last night, whilst Grace was at ballet class, I went to Home Depot. It was time to declare war on the pests in my yard. I have been avoiding it for too long. I bought some Malathion Plus, combined with water, and sprayed the heck out of my front yard. I'm sure I managed to get enough of it on my skin to substantially do kidney damage. Ok, I'm kidding about the last part. I know it's my own fault for letting it get this far, but now it's time to get back in gear. Rest assured, I don't think those tiny white caterpillar looking things were actually caterpillars, so I'm not a butterfly murderer!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

I love/hate spiders

I was turning a caterpillar loose on my hibiscus tree and in the process, almost tripped over myself when I realize how close my hand was to this little guy. I can't stand spiders, but isn't he (she?) pretty?



Also, check out these two. I think they're called spiny-backed funnel web spiders. Some people call them jewel spiders. I call them my excuse for not weeding the beds in the backyard. They're all over the place.

Personal DNA Map

I took a cool personality test today that really hit the mark. If you mouse over the colors, it tells you what they stand for. Very cool.



Click on Director if you're interested in more results.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Happy Birthday to Me (37)

Well, I've been waiting for something to profound to happen before I kick-off my own blog. As circumstances have it, my life is not profound. Sooo, here we go with Birthday #37. Whoopee!
For my 37th birthday, I trapped my family into going to the wine country (aka Brenham, TX) to celebrate. We don't take enough road trips.

So we arrive and are outfitted with a knife and bucket and head on down to the grape vines.




Here we are harvesting our grapes


The fruits of our labor!



Just a few minute after those pictures were taken, I was stung by a giant wasp the size of a hummingbird. OMG! I can't remember ever being stung by a bee. Call me a baby but that d*** thing hurt! My hand immediately swelled. Thank god, my hero "aka Ken's dad" brought some sting-eez. That stuff works miracles.

Thanks to Sting-EEZ, I could enjoy the grape squashing (somewhat). They failed to tell us that all the tiny bugs that were hidden in the grapes would start crawling up our legs. Not to mention, the wasps and yellow jackets that kept flying into the plastic bin to steal our juice. We were able to contain the screaming for 1 second while this picture was taken.





[Update: After being called a baby by my husband for whining about my wasp sting, I decided to add this link to Justin O. Schmidt's sting index. I was stung by a paper wasp, which is ranked 3 on a scale of 1 to 5. Oh and by the way, it has been over 3 weeks and I still haven't healed all the way. So there!]












The rest of the photos are up at Flickr under methodical missy.