More sadness

When I got home from the Girls' Trip, my former boss and friend Nannetta had called to give me news on my former assistant, Deborah.  I knew it must've been pretty bad since I haven't talked with either of them in over a year.  It turns out that Deborah's 21-year-old son (and only child), Curtis, had accidentally drowned over the weekend at Village Creek after jumping in and hitting his head.  Curtis had some mental slowness, and the maturity level of a 10-year-old.  But apparently he'd been insistent on leading his own life when he turned 21, and Deborah had been up many nights worrying about him before this happened.  The paper said that no one alerted authorities until he'd been under 10 minutes, and I wonder if earlier notification to someone might have saved his life.  But the outcome is still tragic, regardless of that.  

Some people just don't seem to have very good luck in life, and poor Deborah is one of those people.  She divorced Curtis's father about 10 years ago, and went through all kinds of legal and monetary battles with him.  The divorce left her with almost nothing, but at least she got a good job at Sunair, and if there's one thing I know about Sunair, they take good care of their employees.  She was very dedicated to caring for her son, and and trying to help him make his way in this world.  I hope she can find strength now to get through this.  I can't imagine the pain she's feeling right now, and it was hard to find any words of comfort when I spoke to her yesterday.  But I muddled through the best I could, and will be praying for her and her family.

First play date

While I was away in Lubbock having a wonderful time with my friends (post to follow), my son apparently was having a great time without me.  My sister-in-law brought her ex-roommate and her daughter, Lena, over to see Gabriel.  They got along splendidly and played and swam for two hours.  Needless to say, Gabriel was exhausted that night.  But happy!

A tough couple of weeks

The past week and a half has been possibly the hardest I've ever had to get through in a long time.  

My parents went on vacation, knowing that the remodel of their kitchen, den and bathroom was still going on.  They left my number with the general contractor, but didn't anticipate there would be any problems since they were supposed to be finished before they left on their trip.  Think again.  We had many trips where I had to grab Gabriel and head over there to deal with either the alarm going off, someone making a delivery and no one to meet them or some other crisis.  But, I would've done this and much more to ensure that my parents had a relaxing Colorado vacation.  They've taken care of our house PLENTY of times when we were out of town.  And because they're always doing nice things for us.  But I was very happy to see them back safe and sound.

Saturday we did our annual round trip drive to Lufkin and back to visit my sister-in-law's Godmother.  She is a cloistered nun and had her Silver Jubilee celebration a few weeks ago, but it was in the middle of the week and we could not go.  So we promised to visit her for the day.  This is always a nice day.  The monastery is peaceful and beautiful, surrounded by giant pine trees, and many of Sister Maria Rosario's fellow nuns always come to chat with us.  Gabriel gets used to their clothes after awhile and warms up and charms all of them.  But it's also a tough trip to do in a day, and we end up exhausted afterwards.  

One sad thing we're dealing with is that our priest is leaving St. Rita's.  He received a post going to St. Patrick's in downtown Fort Worth (a definite step up), so I'm happy for him, but we are so sad to see him go.  He did great homilies that Jav and I could always relate to because Father Richard is close to our ages.  And he did the most wonderful Baptism Mass for Gabriel that still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it.  We had a big dinner for him Sunday night and EVERYBODY showed up, which I was very happy to see.  It was an emotional evening.

That day I also found out my good, good friend is most probably moving away.  I'm happy for them, but really sad all at the same time.  

Yesterday I found out Cobra, my former reading student turned friend, went to the emergency room for the 4th time in 6 months with congestive heart failure and irregular heartbeat.  It took them 2-1/2 hours to stabilize her because anything they did to help one problem kept making the other problem worse.  She is in stable condition now (Gabriel and I visited briefly this morning), but needs a valve of some type put into her heart to stop the irregular beating.  I'm praying she still has some fight left, even though two of the four chambers in her heart are damaged.  

And my sister-in-law's new boxer, Ruby, who I haven't met yet but is apparently one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet, appears to have a severe liver problem and heart worms, and probably won't make it very much longer.  Sandra's only had her for a month and a half, but of course has gotten very attached to her. There's still a small hope that the heart worm problem is causing the liver problem, and heart worms can be cured.  

And finally, Hurricane Dolly struck South Padre yesterday with 100 mph winds.  We don't know if our condo is damaged, underwater, or blown away by the hurricane.  All the power is still down on the island and Jav can't get in touch with anyone.  All we can do is wait until some order is restored, and he may have to make a quick flight down there just to assess what's going on.  

It's just been too much emotional news lately.  I'm ready for some fun and laughter, and fun and laughter I shall have this weekend on our second annual Girls' Trip with my dear high school friends.  It couldn't have come at a better time!

And who says cartoons can't teach you things?

I just learned something so cool from Curious George.  

Loosey lefty, righty tighty.  

Why didn't someone else let me in on this years ago?

The Tao of Teletubbies

My son loves the Teletubbies. 

I remember first hearing about them years ago, from parents of toddlers who thought they were strange, but knew how much their kids seemed to get into them.  I checked them out one day when I was home sick from work, and agreed that they were very strange.  A United Kingdom created show with lots of Japanese Anime leanings about 4 little aliens (?) who love to play and watch real kids play all over the world.  OK, somebody smoked one too many funny cigarettes over there across the pond.  But they did seem sweet and innocent, and I could see how babies and toddlers could fall in love with them.

So when it came time for Gabriel to start watching TV, the two shows at the top of my list for him to watch were Teletubbies and Sesame Street.  I just have trouble with Barney - not because of the dinosaur himself, but because of the over-enthusiastic and bubbly children.  They drive me crazy.  So, we started with an assortment of DVD's, with some Baby Einstein, Sesame Babies and Teletubbies.  He has since rejected all notion of the Sesame Babies, preferring to watch the grown up version now.  The Baby Einsteins still hold his attention, for now.  And I even kept one Barney video because the whole thing was filmed at the Ft. Worth Zoo, which I thought was pretty cool.   But the stars in his world are Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po.  We now own 7 hour-long DVD's and VHS tapes, which rivet Gabriel to the TV every evening while I'm cooking dinner.

Now that I'm an expert on this charming show, I can share why it's great.  They teach their young viewers about manners, saying "thank you" to each other when toys are handed off.  They teach about sharing.  They give each other hugs all the time, and I'm a big believer that you can never have too many hugs.  They love to dance.  They show real children playing and having fun from all over the world.  They also show cultural things like learning traditional dance in India or helping with chores like washing clothes in Africa.  It has taught Gabriel that there are children who may not look the same as him, but they are very like him in many ways.  Plus there are parts that are downright laugh-out-loud funny.  I'll never forget the first time I heard him belly laughing, and ran in to see him watching the part where their favorite meal, Tubby toast, sails out of the toaster and lands on each plate with an accompanying fart noise.  To a 15-month-old, that's comic genius.  

We decided to get him some Teletubbies jammies, and ended up having to order them direct from England.  They took forever to get here, then ended up being long-sleeved.  My Mom was sweet enough to transform them into short-sleeved, and we finally got to show him our surprise night before last.  Most of his reaction was saved on our video camera, but I managed to get a few stills.  They don't do his squealy excitement justice, although the last photo above caught him in mid-squeal.  

Give me weird but sweet over sugary and fake any day.   The Teletubbies ROCK!!    

Summer

The only way to enjoy the Dog Days.

The Dog Days of Summer are here in the state of Texas.   My energy level will continue to go down, slowly, until I'll just be a puddle of sweat by the time mid-September hits and brings slightly cooler weather.  I am stubborn about defending my plants and my yard against the heat.  I go to extremes to keep them going.  

I get up at six and start watering in between feeding the pets.  Because of the butcher job that Asplundh did to our trees last spring, the back strip of our backyard gets eight hours of full-on sun.  St. Augustine does not appreciate this much sun.  (Most living things don't unless they are thriving in the Sahara Desert.)  So in between sprinkler system waterings (every two days), I am moving our tiny portable sprinkler around.  I water all my backyard pots.  Every other day I get our flower beds in the back.  All before Gabriel ever gets up.  

We try to walk Molly three to four times a week.  In this heat, we have to be out the door by 7:45 at the latest or it's just already too hot.  This morning it was so humid I think I lost 5 pounds just by sweating.  Once it gets cooler, Jav can walk her two nights a week, which allows me to have the energy to mix up my workout a little with yoga or something besides walking.  We also move our walk time to later in the day once it cools down, which means we get to move a little slower in the mornings.

When Gabriel goes down for his nap, I fill up the birdbaths and various other water receptacles all over the yard, finish watering the beds in the front, and do any other ancillary outside tasks like spraying for bugs (organic, of course).  And then after doing the dinner dishes every night, I get the flower pots out front.  Twice a week I drag out the front hose to water our baby tree on a slow-drip all night long.   It still needs a little pampering since it's not two yet, just like Gabriel.    

Spreading out the yard tasks allows me to get it all done without getting total burnout.   But when the highs get into the hundreds, I start to get burned out anyway.  I have daydreams of pulling up all the grass on the backyard strip and putting in a lap pool.  I try to make myself like the way cactus looks in a landscape.  I determine that next spring I'm not going to plant ANYTHING new that will cause more watering.  

But by the time every spring arrives, I've blocked out the pain of the Dog Days, and can't wait to get new things in the ground.  I guess I'm a slow learner.  We're off to find a bigger backyard pool for Gabriel, one I can possibly fit it too.  Or at least my feet.

Reading

Even though Gabriel isn't even two yet, he already loves books and loves to be read to.  So I entered him into the Fort Worth Public Library's Summer Reading Program.  We got to log a day of reading in if I read to him (or if he looked through books by himself) for at least 20 minutes a day.  We quickly logged 15 days and the website told us to come by any branch and he would get a prize.  I lallygagged about this, but finally went by last Friday.   We were sent to the customer service desk, and when I told the library employee what we needed, she got this look on her face like, "Yeah, right, I'm sure he really read that much at his age." and I guess thought we were only out for the prize.  I could have assured her this was not the case, since I figured it was probably just some China-made little something or other.  It really made me mad, but of course I didn't say anything.  I mean, if she is skeptical and unenthusiastic about a child reading, what is she doing working there?  She seemed to lighten up when she saw how many library books we were checking out, and when Gabriel waved and said "bye-bye" to her in his cute little baby voice.  (Who wouldn't?)  Of course, when I found out one of the prizes was a free ticket to a Ranger Game, I kind of understood how people might take advantage.  But still.

I love how much he already loves books.  I brought our library books to Mass last night, and he spent almost the whole homily looking through them.  His two favorite books both have trains for the main subject - Puff Puff Chugga Chugga and Chugga Chugga Choo Choo.  He also loves both books I got at Half Price Books for him, which just makes me so happy considering how cheap they were.  We're going again this afternoon, and who knows what new adventures we'll find between the pages?

Baseball fun

We took Gabriel and my six-year-old nephew, Cade, to the Ranger Game about three weeks ago.  Cade has been to several Fort Worth Cats games with my brother, but he had never been to a Ranger Game before.  I think it was all a little overwhelming for him.  He seemed to really get into it for the first couple of innings, and was asking Jav all kinds of baseball questions.  Then he started asking the proverbial kid questions - "When are we going to eat?"  "When are we going to walk around?"  "Can we meet the mascot."  "How long do we have to stay?"  After that, his attention on the game came and went, but we were able to have a pretty good time through the middle of the sixth inning (when the ever-exciting Dot Races take place).  

Gabriel seems content as long as he is eating or flirting with other fans.  We got food and drinks on the way before we got there, and Sundays are $1 ice creams for the kids days.  So even though we all ate too much, it didn't leave a big gaping hole in our wallet.  I guess in my head I had thoughts of inspiring a life-long love of baseball in Cade due to our experience at the game, so I was just a little disappointed afterwards when he seemed happy to be heading home.  I need to learn to not have unrealistic expectations when it comes to kids.  Especially for Gabriel's sake.

Clingy vs. Independent: A happy medium?

I read all the books when I had Gabriel about getting him to sleep in his own bed, when to start taking away bottles, how to get him to go to sleep on his own.  And we followed all of this pretty closely.  The result is that we have one extremely independent child on our hands.  

As long as it's his idea to do things, he's happy.  If you try to force things on him, he gets mad.  If he picks out a toy, that's ok.  If you suggest a toy, or a book, he gives us his "I don't think so" yowl and kicks his feet in protest (if he's sitting down).  If you try to help him say a word, he downright gets so mad you think he might throw something at you.  The only song he lets me sing without protest is "Sing, sing a song...".  For some reason, this song calms him and he seems to always enjoy hearing it, no matter what mood he is in.  

The last time we went to Fredericksburg with my my Mom, I tried picking him up from the Pack N Play and letting him sleep with me in the bed for a little while in the mornings.  He couldn't get comfortable with someone else in the bed.  Finally, when all I had was one arm barely draped over him, he fell back asleep.   A couple of times I've tried to get him to take naps with me in our guest bedroom, but he just can't settle down unless he's by himself.  

I'm glad he's independent.  And he is still a very loving child, loving to give hugs and kisses all the time to everybody in the family.  But every once in awhile it would be nice to cuddle up with him and take a nap.  That's when I wouldn't mind a little more clinginess.

The game of summer

My neighbor, Helen, had her family over on the Fourth.  We saw them playing a rollicking game of croquet in her backyard, and it brought back so many memories.  My grandparents had an old croquet set that we played with for years every summer in their backyard.  My brother and I used to take turns making up our own courses, and in trying to outdo each other we had wickets going around trees and under shrubs.  But when we played with the adults, we stuck to a pretty tame course.  I remember I HATED it when my brother got to wallop my ball into kingdom come, which happened pretty often.  But I also remember how much fun we used to have in Mamaw and Bapaw's backyard.    

Playing croquet is so pleasing to the senses.  The dulled color of the balls and the stripes on your matching mallet.  The wonderful sound the mallet makes when it hits the ball.  The feel of the slightly scratched wooden balls in your hand and the cool grass under your feet as you wait to start another game (croquet is best played barefoot).  The taste of a glass of cold lemonade in-between games, which during play was safely tucked away under their Adirondack chairs so a stray ball wouldn't knock it over.  

I've got to search for a slightly used set.  Having a brand new set just wouldn't be quite right.

Fabulous 4th of July

We really enjoyed the 4th yesterday.  First off, we decided to sign up for the Optimist Club's program where they put a flag in your yard just after 7 am and pick it back up around 6 for five holidays during the year.  This was our first one, and the flag looked so pretty flying in front of our house.  

Around 10, we put Gabriel in the stroller and walked the few blocks over to watch our annual neighborhood 4th of July parade.  It was longer than last year, with about 30 cars and motorcycles and pedestrians, all decorated in their red, white and blue finest.  Gabriel's favorite part was the fire truck at the end.  I thought he was going to blow a gasket with excitement.  We then walked down to our neighborhood park to have hot dogs, chips, cookies and lemonade.It was really cool walking through our neighborhood and seeing how many people were gathered outside their houses to watch the parade.  There were big groups of people in lawn chairs, sitting out with their dogs and visiting, all along the route.  It made me really proud to live where we live.  

After eating, they announced the winners for best decorated vehicles, thanked the organizers, and we made the long, hot walk home.  We were so wiped out when we got home, we all three took a nap.  Then I was off to grocery shop, then we did our patriotic duty by heading out to the mall.  We decided Gabriel's too small still to go see any fireworks, so we headed home for dinner and pretty much called it a day.  But it was a really fun day! 

 

Relaxing TV

  Robert Plant and Alison Kraus on  Crossroads.

Chefs going head-to-head on Iron Chef America

 Lately, all I want to watch on TV are cooking shows and music shows.  I guess it's partly because none of the dramas I watch have new shows out right now.  But it's also because I don't like to get tense during my two hours of mind-numbing de-stressing every night.  

My favorite cooking shows are all on Food Network - The Next Food Network Star, Ace of Cakes and Iron Chef America.  The Next Food Network Star is kind of silly.  They are asking the contestants to cook meals for lots of people in almost no time, and it's just a cheap way to get drama into the show.  I would rather see them have more time, so I can learn something.  But I'm hooked anyway.  

Ace of Cakes is about Chef Duff, a totally cool, rock and roll loving skilled welder and master cake designer, and his Charm City Cakes business in Baltimore, Maryland.  Each show is a week's worth of cake orders, how Duff and his staff go about designing and putting the cakes together, and the stress of delivering these fragile masterpieces.  It seems like it might be boring, but the personalities of Duff and his staff are hilarious and are really what make the show.  

Iron Chef America puts two well-known chefs head to head.  They supposedly find out the secret ingredient and then have one hour (along with two sous chefs each) to come up with 5 gourmet dishes that showcase the secret ingredient.  This show started out in Japan (I think), but I never watched it because the secret ingredients always grossed me out (stuff like octopus or fish eyes or something).  But the American version doesn't always use such exotic ingredients.  It's always dramatic, wonderfully campy, fascinating to watch, and makes me hungry at the end.  

Our music shows are Crossroads on CMT, Soundstage and Austin City Limits, both on PBS.  

Crossroads has been on awhile, but we've just recently caught onto it's greatness.  It puts two artists together, one from the country world and one from some other genre, and they sing each other's hits.  This is truly an amazing show no matter who is on it (the only one I haven't liked that much was Kid Rock and Hank Williams, Jr., neither of I can stand).  The best ones we've watched were Lyle Lovett and Bonnie Raitt, LeAnn Rimes and Joss Stone, and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant.    

Austin City Limits has been on forever, and sometimes the guests can't hold my interest, but it's always good to at least check part of it out.  The recent ones that stick out in my mind are Coldplay and Juanes (a Columbian hottie whose music is even hotter).  I have R.E.M. taped but haven't been in the right mind to watch them yet.

We kept catching Soundstage while channel surfing and have decided to add it to our DVR regulars.  This is really weird to me, because both shows we watched were people I would have never thought I'd get into.  The first was Dan Fogelberg, which they replayed just after he passed away.   I couldn't believe how many songs I knew!  The same thing happened last night when we caught REO Speedwagon.  I groaned when we first turned it on, but I ended up really enjoying it.  Of course, the bad part is that I've had "Keep On Lovin' You", one of the silliest rock anthems ever written, in my head ALL DAY LONG.  But I'm kind of excited to see who turns up next.  I'm learning that as I get older, I'm a little surprised at what I'm liking musically.  

Lake Where?

Jav and I got to get away for two days and nights early last week.  We had decided to try a lake house, and I really intended to get a little more into East Texas and the pine trees.  We picked a beautiful spot on Lake Tawakoni, which is only about an hour outside of Dallas.  We packed up the car like we were leaving for two weeks, dropped off Gabriel at Jav's parents' house, and headed East (just barely).  When we drove into the gates of our hosts' private property, it was one of the few times in life where the expectations meet up with the reality.  It was right on the water, surrounded by trees and nature.  

We were thinking of driving around the lake for lunch one of our days, but we ended up parking ourselves there until we headed back home.  We could have checked out the lake in the paddle boat provided for guests.  We could have fished (Tawakoni is considered one of the best but unknown places to fish in Texas).  But it just seemed like too much effort.  I had a little trouble with guilt over leaving Gabriel, and just plain missing him, but after we called the first morning and he seemed to be having a blast I was able to relax more.    

We had two great dinners (steaks one night, rosemary chicken the next), with sides purchased at a local Farmer's Market on the way there.  We had a huge breakfast the first day, and lunched on sandwiches, salt and vinegar chips and coconut macaroons.  We took naps.  We actually watched whole movies at a time (four of them over our two-day stay).  We spent hours just sitting on our porch watching the cranes.  We read books.  We sat outside late at night listening to all the crazy insects and frogs and marveling at how many stars are actually in the sky.  In other words, we successfully and completely de-stressed and chilled out.  It was great.

It was something we will, I'm sure, need to do again.  The website for our cabin is www.cottageonlaketawaloni.com.