Imagination - let it soar!

For about the past three or four months, we have enjoyed an ongoing story, told by Gabriel, during our dinner.  For the first couple of months it was called "Haunted House" and basically dealt with us first going to a fast food restaurant, usually Taco Bell, and then ending up at a haunted house searching for bad vampires/ghosts/witches/skeletons.  Gabriel had been watching alot of Scooby Doo at the time, and had just watched Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein.  He just started it one night, and wanted us to join in with plot turns and surprises.


Then it morphed into the "Haunted Train" where we got on a train, and each night found a different booklet to let us know what spooky place we were visiting.  We went to a haunted beach, baseball game, museum, grocery store, restaurant, school, amusement park, forest, and airplane.  The airplane story lasted at least 2 weeks.  During all of this time the story participants were the four of us, Gabriel's classmates, and his two imaginary friends,  Brocklin and Orcornelius.  Oh, and their 100 friends.  


Then all of a sudden the story morphed again into all of us up and moving to a hotel so that we could be near Wacky World, the name of the aforementioned haunted amusement park.  It wasn't really about the haunted anymore, though.  It was about the rides!  We've never taken Gabriel to Six Flags, but I keep describing the different rides and he is getting more and more excited about going one day. Last week he came up with a really funny turn, when he decided to use his President's placemat in the game.  We pair up different presidents and they ride rides and fight over which one to ride next. They sometimes want to change partners to have one more, or less, adventurous.  I try my best to do accurate voices for the ones I have heard, but I am at a loss when he picks James Monroe or someone like that. 


There are nights when I would just prefer to sit and eat my dinner, quietly and with nothing taxing my brain to try to come up with a new part of the story.   But after watching this video below, I am inspired by Gabriel's imagination and want to nurture and encourage it.  Now I can't wait to see what he dreams up next.


(Note:  This is long, but SO worth your time.  Mom, get Dad to watch it too.)

Crotchety before my time

We've had a hard couple of weeks, with first both boys getting upper respiratory and ear infections, then Jav getting bronchitis, then me having a sinus and double ear infections. Add to that all the extra hours Jav worked recently (until 10 or later for a week and a half) on a project, and you have one tired and burned out me.

I used to have so much energy. I was unstoppable in the yard, or for any kind of project around the house. I cleaned my house every week and always had time to exercise and walk the dogs.

Times have changed. I am so tired most of the time I got nothing these days. I tried to work out a schedule for cleaning my house so I could keep up better, but my play time with the boys always goes long, or I have to call someone that ends up taking awhile and my whole cleaning mojo just disappears for another day. I have NEVER let my house get this bad before, but it is really hard for me to tell the boys that they are on their own for awhile while I clean after I've been at work all day and have been missing them. I thought for awhile I might try to clean after they went to bed, but there's just no way.

Exercising, other than walking the dog with the boys, is out of the question. I can't get up any earlier than I do to go to work, I get up early to grocery shop on Saturdays, and if we don't have plans I look forward to sleeping in all the way to 7 on Sundays. Forget about doing anything like yoga.

We need to get Tucker to a once a week training class, but some classes are during the week and I just don't see where I'll have any time to fit it in.  So I just keep putting it off.

All of this leads to frustration and me in a generally bad mood all of the time. I feel like I should be getting more done.  Instead, I feel just like Loretta Lynn (as portrayed by Sissy Spacek), in Coal Miner's Daughter, just before she collapses and has a nervous breakdown,  "I'm not runnin my life anymore, my life's runnin' me."   Or something like that.  I think alot of the reason is my age and trying to keep up with little kids.  

And now, add work to the stress. Work was so easy, I didn't even realize how little I was using my brain. Now, though, my brain is trying to keep up. The girl who is our buyer will be leaving on maternity leave in mid to late August, and I was asked to replace her to "enter orders" while she's gone. I didn't think it would be a big deal so I accepted. Big mistake with this new, crotchety me. I've had five days of nonstop training and I am overwhelmed! Apparently they want me to basically do her job, entirely, while she's out.  There's so much to remember and it's all new and I frankly just want to either go back to my humdrum easy job or quit. Before this, even though I didn't relish having to work, it was a nice break from the boys and a chance to be around adults again and feel like I was contributing to something. Now I am dreading getting to work, totally burned out when I get home, and having dreams about part numbers and purchase orders.

I have to admit that part of my anger is at myself for not wanting to take on a challenge and learn something new.  I always thought I would look forward to learning things at any age.  But I guess I was thinking more about learning an instrument or sewing or something.  Not this.  Also, I don't want my boys to just think it's ok to quit at something that seems difficult at first.  I would want them to tough it out to see if it gets better after some time.  So I will do the same thing.  But I don't have to be happy about it.  

Spring project and yard pics

I guess this picture didn't turn out like I wanted, but there's a little bee pigging out on pollen from our holly bushes (the blur just to the left of the middle of the picture). That's the reason I worked so hard all summer to keep them healthy. He and his friends (probably 60 or so) show up about two weeks after the robins that show up each early spring to eat the ripe red berries. That tradition takes two afternoons. Then within a week or so the bushes start giving off this amazing scent. It smells as good as honeysuckle to me, but it much more subtle. And after that, here come the bees! It makes me feel SO good to contribute to the well being of our bees.

Our Bridal Wreath in full Spring bloom.

This picture makes me sad. This wisteria plant is actually in our neighbor Tim's yard, but it hangs over our fence. I never thought to water it all summer, and I don't think he's even aware it's back there (it's in his back corner behind his storage shed). I was surprised to see it blooming at all, but it was greatly diminished from years past. If we (God forbid) have another horrible summer I will try to remember to water it.

This is a weed, but I think it's kind of pretty. We had two or three of them, with more bees buzzing happily around them.

Here is a rare picture of Tucker. I need to devote a post about him soon. The crazy ball of brush behind him is the Asian Jasmine remains that I dug up. I discovered the reason it's called Asian Jasmine is because the roots go down to China!!!! It took me several different afternoons to get this far, only to discover that there are still tons of roots in the soil and I'm nowhere near being finished yet. I wanted to get it finished and plant some new perennials by our Easter get together this coming Saturday. But now I'm thinking I won't plant anything in it until next spring.

The afternoon I finally got that big ball detached from the earth was just after a day of heavy rains. I chopped and chopped at the roots with my shovel and was about to finished, when I realized I had chopped through a wire of some kind. Okay, several wires. Oops. I hoped that they were not still live, made a mental note that I needed to call my husband to ask, and kept chopping and hacking in a new area. Within seconds, I saw I had hit a snake. Well, that was when I called it a day, my friend. I hate killing things, and felt really bad, even though it was a snake. The next day I told my story to a girl on Facebook who was in homeroom with me in high school and is now an avid gardener. She told me to be careful because with the warm weather and it being Spring and all it's mate was probably not far away. I saw one in the same area a few days later when Jav and I went out to stuff that ball of Jasmine into our yard cart.

It sashayed into the huge remaining patch of Asian Jasmine that I will not be touching after this project.

Spring break

We didn't do anything special for Spring Break this year. I had wanted to make a list of neat places to take the boys like I did last year, but I had to work Tuesday and Wednesday so I gave up on that idea. But we managed to have a pretty fun week anyway.

Macy came to hang out with us for a whole day on Thursday. It was really good to get to spend time with her. We have fallen behind on our niece/nephew weekend stays. We played outside and she got to try out my new obstacle course idea (that I saw on Pinterest, thank you very much). Gabriel likes to run it once and then quits. But Macy was a trooper and even had me video her.

Cousins!

This is what happens when you spend the night with your Tia the night before, then spend all day with your cousin playing. Late afternoon nap. Of course he had trouble going to sleep that night even though we kept him up a little later.

Friday afternoon I took the boys to our friend Harper's party at Little Gym In hellish Spring Break/Friday afternoon/Parks Mall traffic no less. We were only a few minutes late, and the boys had a blast. This is Gabriel with Bennett. Bennett, Harper and Gabriel are friends through our neighborhood Moms group. We've been doing something once a month for about 2-1/2 years and they are starting to become better and better friends, which I love. I also really like their moms!

And of course, since the weather was beautiful, we played outside. A bunch. In fact, we didn't want to go inside for some of those days. This little guy is getting almost too big for the baby swing, which makes me sad.

In my next post I'll talk more about my yard project, which is where we found the old soaker hose that Gabriel decided to turn into a big pretend snake.

We had a play date with our new neighborhood friend Nicholas. Nicholas and Gabriel are complete opposites. Whereas Gabriel is bookish and artsy, Nicholas loves sports and was the fastest runner on our soccer team last fall. I was wondering if Gabriel could even keep up with him at the park, but he did great. But he was one tired boy that night. Sunday we took the boys to get new shoes for (hopefully) the next year, then dinner and more playing in the backyard. I used to complain about the early time change, but right now I'm thinking it was a fantastic idea!

Adults only post. No really.

This thought didn't occur to me until the next day after we watched the Season Premier, but if I were to try something like this my husband would be more turned on over the fact that I was cleaning the house than over the fact that I was doing it in my underwear. Sad, but true.

Neighborhood blight - gone!

Our awful neighbors on the other side of Tim (who lives right next to us), have been living in that house for about two years. They were renters, which just makes all of us homeowners crazy. I always had suspicions that they were drug dealers because when they first moved in there was a steady stream of different cars and people that would stop on a nightly basis. Then we found out the couple (we never knew if they were married) had a four-year-old son with a heart condition. We would hear him and sometimes see him,and he seemed to have all the energy and vitality of a healthy kid. But he had to go in the hospital for sometimes weeks at a time for surgery and recovery.

And even though the traffic outside the house slowed down, the problems with them being loud at night started. The guy owned a tree trimming business, and would be out at 8 or 9 at night with his chain saw or a wood chipper. Then they would all be up, sitting outside the garage (which was at the back of the house), smoking cigarettes and trying to repair whichever of their vehicles had broken down that day. Hammering and laughing, laughing and hammering. Poor Tim next door's bedroom was right below their driveway, and he ended up having to move his mattress to the living room to sleep. And what wonderful conditions for the four-year-old to exist in. When we would go out to take Molly out for the last time around midnight, most nights I would hear the little boy out there too.

They were just bad news.

About a month ago I was walking Tucker past their house at dusk and there was a truck putting a flat-bed trailer pulled up to the front door and people were loading furniture into it. Hallelujah! I said to myself and started trying to call Jav. The next day there were new trucks that started appearing, and trash left in the driveway, some spilling out onto the driveway from the garage. We could see this because both garage doors were broken (it looked like someone backed into them), and they wouldn't close any more. There were two screens that had been removed from windows and never put back. Well, we decided that the mom and little boy must have moved out and left his sorry posterior there after a week went by and nothing much changed. Our hopes of him moving out too started vanishing after two weeks, and pretty much died after three.

But then, salvation in the form of the landscape guys that came (we think hired by the owners), for the first time after winter to clean up and mow the yard. Presumably they saw the sorry state of the house and told the owners that they might want to check in. (Who rents out a house and NEVER checks up on the tenants?) Tim said late that afternoon that the owner was storming around pointing out to the guy what he needed to clean up. They moved the rest of their stuff the next day, but it took them a whole week to clean up.

We didn't know all of this was going on until Tim waited for Jav to come home one night and gleefully told him the good news. We all did a Dance of Joy. And even though there's still some trash they didn't take, and a HUGE pile of wood he never got around to chipping or chopping, every time I drive by I do the Dance of Joy in my head all over again.

Now I can officially say I really love all of my neighbors!

Another reason Sesame Street rocks!

I love this so much. I seem to be becoming quite the Elvis Costello fan in my middle age. He's moved to the top of my list of someone I'd like to see in concert. And Elmo, well, I've been a fan of his for awhile now. I've had a chance to get to know him much better as of late, and think he's just wonderful.

Watch Elmo (or Melmo, as Joel has always called him), dancing in the background. Cracks me up every single time.

Balance

Isn't this a great picture? They look so little. I love Joel's feet, and the fact that even though it looks like he's got his hand on his sweet brother's arm, he's probably trying to remove it from around his shoulder.

A few thoughts on being a working mom. Up until now my hours and days were set up perfectly. With Gabriel going to school all three days at the same time I was working, and Joel now going two of the three, it didn't seem like any of my time with them was affected. But starting next week I will be working an extra day, so now I feel like I will be missing out. There's a constant, pressure-filled tug at me both ways. I know how much we need the money I make. But I also know how much I miss being able to relax more around the boys, when we didn't have to go anywhere or be up at any certain time.

The thing is, it's not really the actual work time that gets to me. It's the time it takes to get all the stuff unpacked from the current day and the making lunches, picking out clothes and packing up for the next day. That takes an hour of my time away from them. At least I'm home, and am still accessible to them if Gabriel has a question about the solar system or if Joel wants to show me which letters and numbers he's learned from school. And at least I'm getting faster at it now that we've been doing this for a year(!). I've come up with a few methods of saving time for them, like sorting and folding all laundry after bedtime. All I really have to do each day is throw a load in when we get home. Then I make sure to spend at least an hour playing with them before starting dinner. The thing I still haven't figured out how to squeeze in is housework. It'll get done eventually.

Having to shell out the money that it will take to send both of them to private school has been weighing heavily on my mind. One of the hardest things about being an older parent is that you think waaaaaayyyy too much about the future, like the fact that you will never really be able to retire. Ick. I was even seriously considering home-schooling for a while. I have never believed that home schooling is a real good idea. The lack of social life just seemed crazy to me. Now there seems to be many opportunities for home-schooled kids to have a social life, at least with other home-schooled kids. But Jav pointed out to me that it takes a certain kind of relationship between the home school parent/teacher and kid/student to make it work well. Like maybe one where the kid doesn't already, at the ripe old age of five, think that he's smarter than his mother? Yea, like that. Oh well, obviously not for us.

But now that I've really been thinking about it so hard my head hurts, the bottom line is that I just don't believe the Texas public schools will provide them with a good education, let alone keep them safe. So, I need to quit bitching about it and just buckle down and figure it out. I think I've done pretty well, considering I wasn't really supposed to work at all until Joel started kindergarten. My pay is good, my hours are perfect, and because my mother- and sister-in-law are so wonderful about keeping the boys, none of the money I earn has to go towards day care or a babysitter. And I don't have to worry about who's keeping the boys. That peace of mind is priceless.

I'm also coming to grips with the fact that when I go back to work full-time, I can't really do whatever I want to do, but need to stick with accounting because that's where the money is. This has also been a hard pill to swallow. I really wanted to work with special ed kids in some capacity. But to do that without further education will mean hardly any pay. And we can't afford to send me back to school. So the world of debits and credits will have me around for a long, long time. Sigh.

I just have to keep looking at those faces in the picture above. They will give me the strength and determination I need.

A perfect day

If there were no such thing as "time" hindering me, here is how my perfect day would go:

Sleep in, at least an extra hour, which would mean 7:30 if there were time. Believe me this feels like a gift on the rare occasion that it happens.

Exercise: Yoga, walk the dog, new kick boxing DVD I got for Christmas that I've used ONCE, or weight training.

Go online and just browse Facebook and other sites to get caught up on the day before.

Get kids and breakfast ready. Read a magazine or the paper while I eat breakfast.

Play with cats for awhile, throw the ball for Tucker.

Play with the boys, sometimes together, sometimes separately. Art, music and dancing, building something, playing games. Tickle session on the floor, then piggy back rides.

Watch the birds outside. Sit at my desk that I've sat at maybe three times and write in my bird journal.

Make and eat lunch.

Get Joel down for a nap, read some books to Gabriel, then me take a nap.

Clean one room of my house really, really well.

Work on at least one project, like cleaning out a closet.

Do one or two loads of laundry.

Play outside with the boys. Run, play ball, jump on little trampoline, play hide and seek.

Do some gardening and watering out there also.

Play with or walk Tucker.

Sit and watch a cooking show. Catch up on emails/browsing.

Make a wonderful, healthy dinner.

After dinner, play a little more, then make lunches.

Play with cats again while Jav gives the boys a bath.

Put both boys to bed. Read and sing songs.

Talk to hubby about day, any problems, just whatever.

Back outside to water or put birdseed out for the next day.

Take a shower.

Check computer, fold laundry,watch TV with hubby.

Read book club book and whatever else I'm trying to read about dog or child raising.

Get 8 hours of sleep before the next day starts all over again.

This would mean that one day needs about 48 hours in it. So I get by doing about a third of this each day. And try like crazy to not get frustrated about it.

Oh yeah, and write at least one blog post each day.

Pintimidating

I've heard about Pinterest and how wonderful it is through several friends. I never paid much attention because I don't pay much attention to anything that isn't kid or dog related these days. But last night, a mom of one of Gabriel's classmates started a new blog with post after post of these really cool things she's tried from seeing them on Pinterest. She's baked, organized, and made clips for her hair, just within the past two weeks of starting her Pinterest journey. She wrote that her creative side has awakened and she feels well, happier, than she's felt in awhile. When I told her today how much I had like reading her blog she said that it's really brought her out of a routine rut. She's someone I've grown to like and respect (she works part time as a pediatric nurse at Parkland Hospital), so her blog peaked my interest. A little. I actually looked up the website on Wikipedia to read a little more about it. Right now it seems confusing, just like Facebook did at first.

I hesitate to find out any more about it. I might really like it, and I don't have time to like anything else right now. We have stuff on the DVR we've taped from before Christmas that we can't seem to get to. But on the other hand, it seems like new recipes, tips for organizing stuff, easy to make crafts etc... might actually SAVE someone time in the long run, right? So I just don't know. I might just keep following my friend's blog. She's already inspired me to try and make some no-bake cookies and construct a really cool art supply organizer out of a bucket and a tool belt. Does it still count as Pinteresting even if I'm shamelessly stealing ideas, or is that what the site is all about?

So many questions, and so, so little time.

Wanna do the Pony, anyone?

I love Facebook for so many reasons. One is that I get to be Facebook friends with a girl I have never officially met who used to live in Texas but now lives in Pittsburgh. Her posts always seem to make my day, and I will be very happy if I ever get to meet her in person one day. This one defies explanation, but had me smiling all day today. Thanks Teri!

Random Yammering

Every year after the holidays, I long to just go through my house room by room, clean things out, throw stuff away and CLEAN. But because one or more of us has been sick since then, NOTHING has been done. Until this weekend. I am finally attacking the clutter monster. I usually try not to just throw stuff away. We either recycle, or find a charity to give stuff to. But this weekend I've been taking each pile/stack and relentlessly throwing stuff away or putting it where it belongs. Only clothes are going into bags for the charities. I'll work my way around the visible piles, then start working on the closets, drawers and cabinets. It feels really good to get this started.

Somehow this weekend I also managed to do some things outside that I've been meaning to get to. I moved the iris bulbs that I rescued from the monkey grass a few years ago. I had originally put them in our back corner bed, but they have never gotten enough sun back there and I've only had one bloom. Today I moved them to the front yard, under our Chinese Pistachio tree. We used to call this our "baby tree" but it has really grown and the name doesn't make sense any more. I also got our two Crepe Myrtles trimmed back, and started what I am calling my "mid-life crisis gardening project." I am attempting to pull up a huge section of Asian jasmine/monkey grass to have a bigger flower bed along the back of our house. I want to plant drought resistant perennials to have next to my bed of Turk's Cap, which has spread nicely the last couple of years. I also want to attract butterflies and/or hummingbirds. But the job itself is much harder than I originally anticipated. And I'm hoping I don't run into a hibernating snake, because I've seen little snakes in this area before. Yikes! But once again, it felt so good to start doing some of these things that have been on the "to-do" list in my head for a LONG time. There's nothing more satisfying than an afternoon of really hard labor in the yard on a beautiful day.

Except for perhaps solo grocery shopping. I've started a new routine that will last until Gabriel starts having Saturday baseball games this Spring. Because the weekly grocery store trip with two kids in tow was getting longer and longer, and more stressful because of bickering, I decided to start getting up early on Saturday morning to do my shopping while Jav watches the boys. My neighbor Helen usually comes with me, and we reward ourselves for getting up so early with a trip to Starbucks before our shopping. Chai - aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. There are very few people shopping, usually plenty of checkers, and it is a mostly pleasant experience. It's also great because I can get the huge pile of groceries put away without being too rushed. The whole thing still takes most of Saturday morning, but so far I'm loving it.

Speaking of loving things, Jav and I went out for Valentine's Day last Sunday and went to see "The Descendants". What a wonderful movie. I've been a relatively big George Clooney fan, especially since his performance in Michael Clayton. But this movie puts him in the "Great Actors of Our Generation" category. His performance, the Hawaiian scenery and music, and the slight environmental message elevates this movie to greatness in my mind. The two actresses playing his daughters are wonderful also. After the movie we went for dinner at P.F. Chang's and while we were there it started snowing. Hard. How surreal is that? And the weirdest thing is the same thing happened to us last year on our Valentine's date. I guess if Fort Worth is wanting a little snow, we need to plan a date night! Which we plan to try to do more often. I have so much fun with my husband. I've missed spending time with just him.

Seeing one movie has made us crave movie-watching, which is something that has all but stopped since Joel first made his appearance. So Jav got "Moneyball" from one of those movie box rental thingies. We plan to get "Midnight in Paris" next weekend, which I've seen but Jav hasn't. That will mean that we will have seen three of the eight movies nominated for Best Picture before the Oscars next Monday night. Go Us!!!! Reviews to come.

And finally, I worried way too much about choosing the right book for my book club meeting in March. I had thought about baseball fiction, comedy (Tina Fey's "Bossypants" was at the top of the list), traditional English mystery, and a few other genres. But then I saw someone's "Top Novels of 2011" and downloaded the numero uno book into my Nook. It's called "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett. I think I finally hit the jackpot on picking a book that almost everyone will REALLY like. I couldn't put it down. And when I finished I had a good cry, which I have now figured out is the best way to determine how much I liked a book. I cry because the story is good and I don't want it to end. I cry because I've grown attached to the characters and I want to keep finding out what happens to them. And I cry because of the subject matter, if it is something very near and dear to my heart. This book met all three of my Tears Criteria.

The Darkness - We knew them back when...

OK. had to post an addendum about the Superbowl commercials. Jav and I have loved the song below since it came out way back in mid-2000's. The video was done in 2008. We saw them perform on one of the late-night shows and were intrigued by the lead singers voice and eccentricity. He reminded us of Freddie Mercury. Those Brits love their flamboyant, androgynous, high-singing dudes. But you have to admit, this is a rockin' song.

I recently found a CD at Half Price Books that was a compilation of rocking bands, and we were pleasantly surprised and reminded of this song. Gabriel has fallen in love with it.

Well, our little British band must be making a comeback, and was featured in a Samsung ad during the Superbowl. And now everyone is talking about them. I'm feeling really hip right about now!!!

Superbowl, Schmuperbowl

The commercials are the only reasons to watch the Superbowl, and even then they cut the good parts out. Here is the long version of the best one.

My sister-in-law had invited the family over to watch, but Jav suggested that I take the opportunity to take my mom and do some desperately needed clothes shopping. When Gabriel found out that I wasn't going to join them, this was our conversation at lunch:

G: "Mommy, I'm so sorry you're not going be with us to see the BIGGEST football game of the year!"

Me: "Oh, that's ok sweetie. I'm really ok with it."

G, after thinking about this for awhile: "Mommy, you really love baseball, don't you?"

Me, with huge smile on my face: "Yes I do, Gabriel. Yes I do."

Cute

This morning I was busily packing up the car to leave for work and school while the boys played together in the living room. When I came back in to collect them, Gabriel was sitting and just watching Joel run around like a crazy person. He turned to me with a big ole smile on his face and said, "Mommy, that's the best baby that ever came out of your tummy!"

I love that kid. I told him that they BOTH were.

Christmas 2011 pictures

Dreams of somewhere else.

As much as I love the city I live in, living in Texas has become very problematic to me. We spend the whole summer sweltering and miserable. It's too hot to even go swimming for gosh sakes. So we gripe and complain and can't wait for cooler weather.

Then the cooler weather comes and we have a couple of months of happiness before the seasonal allergies really kick in. Then Gabriel, Joel and I start our round robin of continual runny noses, coughing, fever and generally miserable states. Even though we all need fresh air, I hesitate to go outside because I feel like the air is poisoning us. I never open the windows, even on nice days when it would be wonderful to air out the house. We diligently empty and refill the humidifiers nightly. We spend around $100+ extra per month on prescription and over-the-counter medicines. We take the boys' temperatures so much we start just leaving the thermometers on the counter after washing them off instead of putting them back in the cabinet. We buy AT LEAST the three-pack of Kleenex boxes every stinking week.

I sometimes get tired of seeing the boys like this, and take them to the doctor, only to be told that it just needs to run its course. How I hate wasting that co-pay. Or sometimes the doctor will think they've been sick too long and must have a sinus infection, and give them antibiotics. I am not one to advocate antibiotics when they're not needed, but I must confess I am a happy soul when this happens because I know we will have at least one of us that feels better for a couple of weeks. Then it starts over again.

I went to have the allergy testing done in September and found out that I'm not allergic to mountain cedar, like I thought all of these years. On a scale of 1 to 4, I had ones on a great many things, twos on a couple of grasses and a mold, a three for dog hair (which almost made me utter a great big WTF in the allergist's examining room), and a four for a very common kind of mold. I'm assuming that dead oak leaves must have this mold, because after I raked leaves for 20 minutes one day back just after the holidays, my allergies ramped up and I've been battling ever since. It also may not be helping that we decided on a long-haired dog. At first he didn't seem to shed, but now when I brush him quite a bit of hair is coming off of him. He doesn't seem to lose it in big tufts that drift around the house like Molly did, though, so I don't think I can blame much of my suffering on Tucker.

What I can blame it on is freakish weather changes, sometimes damp and sometimes dry wind, and very little freezing weather. Hmmmmm. Sounds like just plain ole Texas winters. Living somewhere with cooler temperatures in the summer and vegetation that doesn't make me want a sinus transplant sounds so refreshing. Canada isn't too far away, is it really? And it's not really THAT cold, is it?

Mountain men they will never be...

...and I'm not so sure that's a good thing anymore.

Let me try to explain the genesis of my crazy thinking.

I think we have done a good job in starting the boys off on the right foot academically. They love to read, learn, and ask questions. I think as parents one of our main goals is to help them get "book smart". We want them to WANT to go school, make great grades, and get into a fantastic college. But what about common sense stuff? Or practical life lessons? Neither one of us can work on cars, figure out how to fix plumbing problems, or build things with wood. The only things I feel I can contribute on a practical level (besides basics like doing laundry) is to teach them about gardening, and possibly growing their own food.

But what if they need more than that to survive one day? What if something catastrophic occurs to take away our comfortable and relatively easy way of life? What if the food or water supply was contaminated or rendered somehow unsafe? Every time a story breaks about bacteria infecting people from a food source it scares the crap out of me. I think we have a tendency to hold onto blind faith that whatever is on the shelves of our grocery store is 100% safe to eat. Or what if global warming kicks in sooner rather than later, and drought becomes the norm? All of a sudden there's not enough food to feed everyone, and things start to get ugly.

Paranoid thinking, maybe, but not completely farfetched.

A couple of years ago, we were kind of sad to realize that there was no one to take Gabriel (this was before Joel) fishing. Well, we could take them, and I know how to attach a lure to the line and cast it. But if I ever caught a fish I wouldn't know the first thing about releasing it, let alone keeping it to clean, filet and serve for supper. My Uncle Robert used to take my family fishing, and although he threw most of what we caught back, he would sometimes keep one of the bigger ones and we would have some beautiful fresh fish filets for dinner that night. My mom, coming from a family of uncles on her dad's side that actually fished the Gulf commercially, claims she used to know how to clean them, but isn't too jazzed about trying it again. My dad would go fishing with his grandfather, Daddy Buck, but Dad never had the patience to actually sit and fish. He loved to hike, so that's what he would do while his grandfather fished.

Uncle Robert and his brothers all hunted too, and and could skin and butcher a deer without thinking about it. After all, their father (my maternal great grandfather) had been a butcher for his career. I have second and third cousins who killed their first buck before they were 10 years old. I used to play just outside my Uncle Robert's smokehouse, where he had different cuts of venison hanging everywhere and the smell was sometimes horrible, sometimes heavenly. But my parents never got into the hunting way of life. In fact, my Dad may have gone along on some hunting trips when he first started meeting my mother's family, but never had the stomach for killing another living creature. Which is the way I feel about it too.

Jav's dad never got into hunting or fishing either, and Jav himself was too busy playing baseball to worry about the outdoorsy stuff. So the boys have little or no knowledge to gain from their dad. Which up until now wouldn't really have bothered me. I've been a hater of guns and hunting for some time now. When we started having children, I just assumed they'd grow up in a gun-free home. That included toy guns, in my opinion. So other than a tiny plastic water gun that didn't work that someone gave him last summer, Gabriel hasn't had the word "gun" in his vocabulary. But he recently went to a classmates' cowboy-themed birthday party where the party favors were a hat, bandana and plastic water gun. He had a great time once he got home getting dressed up, especially once I told him there were some boots in his closet that someone gave us that probably almost fit him now. Then he told me while driving to school one morning this week that one of Tita and Tito's neighbors has a BB gun in his garage. How, I asked, did he know this? Because Tito took him to say "Happy New Year" and the man let him hold the BB gun, and may have even let him shoot it. The details are sketchy.

But the thing is, I am starting to wonder if they might someday NEED to know how to hunt or fish for their own food.

We would love for the boys to get involved in Boy Scouts, and my dad and I are on the verge of taking Gabriel on his first hike at the Fort Worth Nature Center. But even if they love it, it doesn't mean they'd end up even more outdoorsy. I asked Jav what he thought about getting them a BB gun when they're a little older, but only to shoot at targets in the back yard. He thinks I'm crazy in thinking that they won't try to aim at any animals. I wondered about archery electives, or taking them skeet shooting. At least they could practice at hitting a target. But the thing is, you could practice on non-living things your whole life, but it wouldn't give you ANY sense of what it would be like to actually track and kill a living creature.

There is a scene in "Into the Wild" that really grabbed me. It's towards the end of the movie, and college boy Chris McCandless has hitchhiked all the way to Alaska in his quest to turn his back on the establishment. He has read countless books on surviving in the wilderness. He kills a moose and is attempting to skin and butcher the animal before the meat starts to rot and becomes inedible. And this is where he realizes that reading things out of a book, no matter how fierce your determination to do them, is not the same as real life experience. He fails, and I felt his agony of realizing that not only did he kill that majestic animal for nothing, but that he may have blown his chance of finding real food for a long, long time.

So would the boys be able to turn into Mountain Men in a pinch, without having grown up going hunting and fishing? Probably not. I guess we need to hope that they become so successful after college that they have the money to hire someone to do it for them. And I'll have to keep pondering that BB gun issue.

Tucker

In early November, we finally decided it was high time to get another dog. We lost Molly all the way back in July. And along with missing having that furry companion around who is just so glad to see you every time you turn around, I missed having the security of a dog in the backyard and house. We recently had a steady stream of daytime break-ins in our neighborhood, where the thieves took big-screen TVs, laptops, jewelry, etc... They usually hit between 1 and 5 in the afternoon, but never in occupied homes, and never in houses with dogs. I swear having a dog is a better deterrent than an alaram system.

We narrowed our types of dog mixes that we wanted to German Shepherd, Doberman, and maybe Rottweiler, although we read some disturbing things about having Rotties with kids that made that group a big maybe. We decided that if it was a German Shepherd we would be ok with a slightly older dog (no more than 3), but a Doberman or Rottie would need to be a puppy so we could train it from day one. We did some research online, asked some questions to our vet, and then Jav went to the Humane Society to check out some of the ones we were interested in. It was a grueling process to see all of the sweet dogs needing homes, and I couldn't spend any time on the Fort Worth Animal Control site. There were so many, and half the time they wouldn't even bother to determine much about the dog to try to get it adopted. Depressing.

Jav came home talking about a dog that wasn't on their website. His name was Stallone, and he was a 5-month-old Rottie mix. He thought that of all the dogs he observed, this one was the calmest and seemed to be sweet and well-behaved. He also fell in love with a Husky mix that was 7 or 8. And he was the one insisting that we not get an older dog. Hah! When he went back the next day, the Husky mix was gone, but Stallone was still there. Some of the Humane Society employees, the ones who really work with the dogs and KNOW, claimed that he seemed to be a really great dog. He decided to get him, but they don't let you have the dog right away. Most dogs they have to spay or neuter before you can take them home. We asked that since he was only 5 months, could we please let our vet take care of that once he was six months old. They said sure.

Well, I went to pick the dog up with the boys two days later. When I walked in the girl started telling me that since he had surgery he didn't need to eat much that night, etc. They had neutered him. I was pretty upset, then they brought him down the hall. Other than his coloring, he didn't look like a Rottie. Not big enough. He was woozy, which was to be expected, but he was also coughing. I've always heard that heartworms can cause coughing. I put him in the car, and proceeded to try and drive home while crying and trying to call the vet's office. The front desk girl assured me that it might just be kennel cough, which many dogs that come from shelters end up with. I had an appointment to see the vet the next day and tried to be patient. And not too upset with Jav. After all, I was too emotional to go with him to help with his decision and was totally trusting him. I couldn't really blame him for choosing a too small, sick dog, could I?

Dr. Norris determined that he did have kennel cough, made worse by the anesthesia of the surgery (it would take him a month and tons of meds to get over it), he was probably closer to 6 or 7 months old, and thought he might have some Gordon Setter in him due to his beautiful coat, and feathering around his ears and haunches. He also thought that his temperament was amazing for a young, very sick dog. He made me feel so much better I could have kissed him! I also knew that I didn't want to keep the name Stallone. He obviously was NOT a Stallone. After some deliberating we decided on Jake. I still think this is a perfect name for him, but then we made the ridiculous decision to change it because one of Jav's close friends has a son named Jake. I would not be mad in the least if someone I knew named their dog after one of the boys. But we changed it to Tucker. Which now has stuck.

We knew that a puppy would cost us some money up front. But we never imagined that along with the kennel cough meds, he would end up needing meds for tapeworm, and then most recently mange. Sigh and double sigh and triple sigh!!!!! He only has it around his face, common for puppies whose mother may have been infected with the parasite. So he's on a six month trial to see if this one type of heartworm medication works to clear it up. It's very expensive of course.

Then there's all of the things he has chewed up. Numerous puzzle pieces, about 20 socks, some Christmas ornaments with hooks spit out to the side, thank God, an old tiki torch stand, a wooden handle of a rake, the ends of the pooper scooper set handles, some plastic flower bed siding, an old soaker hose, the camera USB cable and my new Nook USB cable. Those last two cost some money to replace. Every time I look in the yard he has found something else to chew on that he's not supposed to. We've been walking him almost every day and I try to throw the ball with him to burn off some energy. I've spent oodles more money on countless chew toys, most of which he chews for a couple of days then either gets tired of them or I have to throw them away because he's chewed a hole in them or something.

So instead of ending up with one of the breeds we talked about, we have this crazy mix of a dog. The girl who bathes him said she noticed qualities of about six different breeds, including Basset Hound (long tail, big feet and short legs), Chow Chow (dark spots on tongue), Golden Retriever (shape of head and beautiful coat), Dachshund (coloring), and even, yes, Rottie. The way he's been chewing that didn't surprise me.

So, instead of a big dog, we have a medium sized dog (he's gone from 33 to 41 pounds) with short legs. He has a LOUD bark, but instead of a good watchdog, we have a dog that barks whenever the other neighborhood dogs bark. Which I guess could be ok. I was pretty upset with the Humane Society about 1) how sick the dog was when they let him be adopted and 2) the fact that they fudged about his age and his breed background. Jav says if I were to see how hard those people work for NO pay trying to find homes for all those animals that I would be a little more sympathetic. He's probably right, but still.

He's been nipping at Gabriel pretty bad, too. It's so interesting to me that Joel must give off some signal that he won't put up with that nonsense, because Tucker never bothers him with nipping. Gabriel is more sensitive and nervous about telling him NO and Tucker takes full advantage. So of course Gabriel is not too happy with Tucker. He asked me yesterday if Tucker would be getting sick anytime soon so Daddy could go pick out another dog. Ouch.

All of these are things we need to work on. We need to take him to a class, but are so tapped out from all the vet trips that we just don't have the money. And despite all of the negative things I've mentioned, I think he is a really cool dog and will end up being a great pet for our family. He is very laid back and has the sweetest temperament. He seems content being outside or inside. He LOVES Jav and his little hiney goes crazy back and forth with that huge tail when he comes home from work. He already follows me all around the house. He is really good at walking. Everyone at the vet's office dotes on him, thinks he is beautiful dog, and has a fantastic temperament. ESPECIALLY with kids. So I guess Jav really did a terrific job.

Christmastime is here!

Our annual Christmas trip to Froggy's was the weekend before last. The boys were overwhelmed and didn't know where to look first when we walked in.

We let them buy one toy each, and usually buy at least one more family Christmas gift.

Joel fell in love with this bouncy horse, but it was just too expensive. Gabriel couldn't make up his mind. After spending over an hour in the store, we ended up with a car for Joel and a school bus for Gabriel. Sigh. It doesn't really matter what you end up with, though, it's more about getting to play with and look at every toy you could possibly think of.

The four of us outside of Harry's Hot Dog. We didn't eat there, but a nice woman offered to take our picture. Why she didn't get the whole hot dog in the picture is beyond me. But oh well.

We went to Chuy's for dinner after Froggy's. Yum!

After driving back to FW we drove all around our neighborhood looking at lights. It was a super fun day!

Then last week we took a trip to downtown Fort Worth to see the big Christmas tree. The wind had picked up just before we left the house, and those streets downtown were like standing in wind tunnels! Too cold.

We decided to eat downtown too. We picked out a burger joint called Jake's. It ended up being more like a Hooter's but the food was really good. No really, it was! I just felt sorry for the scantily clad girl working the front door every time that cold air gusted in!

The picture really doesn't do it justice. It was beautiful! Fun times.