Thanksgiving Eve

This day is becoming one of our favorite throughout the year.  We went to the zoo again, since it was a gorgeous day.  There were many more people compared to last year.  But we hopped on the train as soon as we got there and rode to the back of the zoo.

Happy and Texas Wild bound!

The pretend alligator ...

... and the real one.  SO close to the glass that Joel really didn't want to stand in front of him to have his picture taken!

I got a kick out of watching the new female jaguar pacing up and down the fence next to the coyotes, who were also pacing, but much more nervously!

The bobcat, who sort of resembled Bones.

I love the picture below.  It was very spontaneous, and came out just like I wanted.

After a quick lunch and some long naps, we regrouped and headed out to find some Mexican food to eat outside.  It was just so beautiful outside.  We had planned to eat at Chuy's on 7th street, but decided to drive downtown to see if any decorating had been done yet for the Parade of Lights planned for the Friday after Thanksgiving.  We were surprised to see the tree decorated already, and then passed Cantina Larado, where many people were eating outside.  We asked the boys if they wanted to eat downtown and got a resounding, "Yeah!!"  It was really fun to watch their little faces looking up at all the buildings, so excited we teased them that they must live on a farm and this was their first time in the Big City.

It was dark by the time we finished so we headed down to see the tree up close, and got a big surprise.   

All the lights were on because they were still testing everything and last-minute decorating!  There were no crowds, and we had pretty much free range of the place.  Gabriel took the picture below, which I think turned out beautiful.

It was a magical day, and one we will all be talking about for a long time.  Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Mixed message!

I started to post this on Facebook, but don't like posting political things.  But this made me laugh all the way home from the doctor today.

Bumper sticker read, "I'll keep my guns, freedom and money....you keep the "change"."

Problem is, the sticker was on a Smart Car.

I'm confused!

Halloween

We love Halloween at our house.  We made a few changes to our decorations this year.  We moved Stuey Skeleton to the Graveyard Fence.  I think he settled in nicely there.  And Gus was moved from his regular spot (seen in the picture below), where he would greet our Trick or Treaters on the porch, further down to just outside the front door.  This actually worked well, because parents would back up a little once I answered the door and invariably set off Gus to laugh his scary laugh.  

Gus is definitely everyone's favorite.  We talk to him constantly.  He's like a pet that only comes around for a month or so each year.  I said goodbye to him and thanked him for a job well done when I folded his arms down, took his batteries out and put him away until next year.  

The picture below shows our new addition this year:  A giant motion-activated spider.  When people walked underneath him he would light up, laugh, and his legs would go up and down.  Awesome.  It took me two days after work to construct a web big and strong enough to hold him.  I was pretty proud of how it came out, and many parents/older trick or treaters told me how cool he was.

We visit the grandparents every year.  Jav's dad had a doctor's appointment and didn't make it back in time for pictures this year.

Pumpkinhead has become one of my favorite decorations.  We name all of them so that they won't seem so scary to the boys.  Joel would say bye-bye to all of them when we left the house every day. 

Joel and our neighborhood friend, Lachlan, who was a candy corn.

Gabriel and Lachlan's older brother Bennett, who DOES NOT like having his picture taken.  

I love these next two of Gabriel, and I love how much he gets into Halloween.  He is still coming up with ideas for haunted houses, causing Jav and I to wonder if there would be a market for a Halloween Party Planner as a career one day.  He would ROCK at that job.  

I love this picture.  It was the last one I took that night, just before I took Joel to have a bath.  He is tired, his makeup is running down his face because of some meltdown (or several) he had, and he just looks so scary.  I'm coming for you, Mommy - ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

We can't wait until next year!

Election 2012 - final thoughts

We just had Election Day the day before yesterday. Let me put all my cards on the table before I begin. I am an Obama-supporting, left-leaning cradle Democrat. I think President Obama made some mistakes throughout his first term, and would have liked to see more progress made in legislation passed, especially in the issue I am most concerned about - Climate Change. I have had to come to grips with the fact that people in Washington just don't know what to do about slowing it down without pissing off the masses with company layoffs or higher energy/car prices. The legislation that has passed is a bandaid to cover a giant, growing wound. But small steps are better than no steps at all, and are definitely better than moving backwards to reverse legislation put into effect over the last decade (which is what Romney was threatening to do). On my Big Issue I only had one choice. 

The other issue I care deeply about is health care, and skyrocketing costs, for obvious reasons.  I have taken Joel to the doctor 4 times in the last three weeks. I've taken Gabriel twice. That's 6 co-pays. I've picked up 4 rounds of antibiotics for Joel, and now one for Gabriel. Jav has been twice and has had 2 rounds of Z-pack and now a stronger antibiotic. This total is MUCH more than we can afford in one month. And to top things off, I have missed two days of work, so far, so no pay for me. I don't think there are many candidates on either side that run for higher office who understand what kind of stress a parent (especially a working mom) is under when you try to put off doctor visits until they are absolutely necessary, hopefully not at the expense of your children's health. I think the addition of more and more women to our Congress is wonderful, because there's more of a chance that they "get it".  I think President Obama has more empathy for this than Mitt Romney ever could.  One of Jav's friends, who is conservative, put it this way on Facebook this morning: 

"Someday maybe Republicans will realize that you have to pick a candidate that has cut his own grass after working all day, ran to the grocery store at 10 pm to pick up cold medicine for a kid, or actually had to think about whether or not he/she can afford a vacation this coming summer..."

My husband, who is an independent from a Republican-voting family, thought he hit the nail on the head. Gone are the days of the country wanting to elect the rich white guy in the suit to run things for us, known now from commercials as "The Man". That was back when many minorities still couldn't vote, and women darn sure didn't organize themselves or have much of a voice. That was back before Hispanics started to immigrate in such numbers that they cannot be ignored or silenced any more. I can't believe what the Florida governor and legislators got away with by trying to enact so many rules to keep certain facets of society from voting. But it backfired anyway, because when you try to keep people down, they will rear back in your face, more organized, with more numbers, and with more determination than every to get their voices heard.

 I think the Tea Party is stuck on the idea that the past was a better time, and I'm sorry, but these people are just stuck in the fifties way of thinking. My Marketing professor when I was in college in the late 80's (a graduate student who had hair like young Peter Frampton and was hawt, as they say these days), told of the wave of Hispanics moving in this country even back then. He told us that the days of Whites running things would eventually come to a close as Minority numbers grew in the middle- and upper-classes. So you have been either living under a rock or in a state of denial if you think these people are going anywhere. The fact that Obama carried swing states that Romney was expected to win proves how powerful the Minority vote is. If the Tea Party tries to draw the Republican party more and more to the right, moderate Republicans better get used to nights like Election night. Their rhetoric is hateful at worse and divisive at best.

I also feel like the concept of "pulling your own self up with your boot straps" could be becoming a bit outdated. I know this is the ideal that made this country great over 200 years ago. But with a tax system that is out of whack, hungry children that don't know where their next meal is coming from, and Seniors forced to choose between buying food or medicine, the majority of middle to lower-class Americans don't want to hear that they just aren't trying hard enough. I know it offends me.  We are in a strange electorate since we are middle class and trying to put two kids through private school.  But everything is relative, and our monetary situation, although much more comfortable than some, is much more of a struggle than many people we know.  We are working HARD and still have a struggle to get it all paid for every month.

Another issue that is standing out in my head today: Campaign Financing is OUT OF CONTROL. All of that advertising money spent to get those hateful messages out about the "other side", but either nobody is watching (have you heard of DVRs? They're quite popular nowadays), or the American public take the ads with a grain of salt now and don't pay any attention to them. There was an ad that ran on primetime CNN repeatedly in the weeks leading up to the election. An older gentleman with a heavy accent pontificates about being from an immigrant family and starting his own business, and the evils that will befall this country (more loss of jobs, more poverty, etc...) if we don't all vote Republican. And he paid for this out of his own pocket. Can you imagine the wonderful things he could have done for the poor and out of work people of this country with that money?  Food banks could be filled to the brim, medicine for the uninsured and on and on and on. Instead most people didn't watch it more than once, out of curiosity, and then it was fast forwarded or ignored. And the same goes for the gazillions of dollars the campaigns themselves spent. What a colossal waste of money. The Grass Roots efforts of the Obama campaign was much more effective (and cheaper) in getting him re-elected. Something needs to change.

And I have had it with certain Republicans who assume certain things about me because of my political leanings. Even though I am a liberal Democrat, I have morals and values. I am deeply spiritual and believe in God. I don't really approve of war as an answer to things, and think defense money could be spent on more important things, but I appreciate the sacrifice our men and women in the military are giving to preserve our freedom, and I pray for them to stay safe.  This may be the worse thing that far right- and left-wing radio and TV talk show hosts have done to this country.  They've made big groups of people absolutely hate the other side.  No listening to each other, no compromise is acceptable.  But as long as they have huge audiences and are getting rich by ruining the country, I don't see this getting any better.  

Despite all of this, and knowing that his road will be a long, tough one to get anything done, I'm still over the moon that Obama has been re-elected.

Some forgotten summer pics

GARDEN:  My yellow rose of Texas

WINDOWS:  These next three are to show one of our old windows, the craziest contraptions that ever were.  WERE being the important word in that sentence.  We finally had all of them replaced.  The guys sent to do the demo had never seen windows like them, and had to bust them out one by one.  They did a fast job, which we appreciated, but left behind alot of glass shards that they really should have picked up.  The third picture is an example of the average size of glass pieces I was finding all over the house.  Pez dispensers make great points of reference!  But regardless of the glass carpet we had to watch out for, we LOVE our new windows.  

THE BALLPARK:  This picture is very special to me because we have a similar one of me carrying Gabriel to his first game when he had just turned one.  

Jav and his dad enjoying a game.

BATH TIME!!!!!

NEIGHBORS - We finally got to go out on the town with our great neighbor, Tim...

... and the next morning was the 4th of July parade.  We've walked down to see it with Tim two years in a row now.  The parade has become a bit disappointing now that the fire truck doesn't participate anymore.  

NATURE - One member of our hawk couple that summered with us, and may have had a chick (I thought I heard one more than once coming from across the street where they were nesting.)  The couple took over this bird bath in the front yard.  They were so tame and used to us that we could go in and out of our garage, in and out of the car, back in and out of the driveway and they would still sit on the birdbath.  

The male in flight...

...and sitting up on on the phone wire behind our house.

BIRTHDAYS - my mom's.  Could you guess?

SWIMMING!  A really sad thing that happened this summer having to do with Gabriel's swim teacher, Mr. Bryan.  My sister-in-law found out he had taken a leave of absence from Nolan (he teaches science  and coaches the swim team there) in May because his wife had been diagnosed with brain cancer.  We decided to sign both boys up at Emler Swim School just in case poor Mr. Bryan had to back out of his swim teaching commitments also.  Then we heard he was still teaching his 2 week sessions during the week and visiting his wife in Houston on the weekends.  We kept Gabriel in the classes at Emler, because we figured it couldn't hurt - the more time in the water, the better.  The Friday before his session was supposed to start, Mr. Bryan called Jav and told him he'd have to cancel on us, because his wife had been put in hospice.  She passed away three weeks later.  How very sad.  I cried when Jav called me at work,  I cried for Gabriel, who had been looking forward to those two weeks all summer, but I mostly cried for Mr. Bryan, one of the nicest people we know, that he had to go through such a sad time.  We've heard he plans to try and teach next summer, and we are hoping he is able to heal throughout the year and find some peace.

The boys had fun at Emler, even though Gabriel never really had a good teacher that pushed him until the end of the summer.  The  substitute was finally tough on him and had him swimming like a fish the entire class.  Joel's class was interesting, in that the mommies weren't aloud in the pool for his class.  Poor Mr. Andrew (who was about 22 years old - maybe), had to handle four crying 2-year-olds at times, and should really have won some type of medal.  Joel LOVED Mr. Andrew and still talks about him even though it's been two months since their last lesson.  By the end of the summer session Joel was being pulled by Mr. Andrew underwater for 10 seconds and loivng it.  

Joel's classmates were Jack, (Joel), Marissa and Maddie.  I love the picture below - it's great of both of them!

Here's Gabriel with one of his classmates, Addy.

Our conclusion for the summer:  Nobody, and I mean nobody, can teach kids swimming as wonderfully as Mr. Bryan.  He pushes them but they have so much fun they don't even know it.  Our summer just wasn't the same without him.

HOUSE:  We needed something on the playroom walls.  I decided to take these old, mismatched frames and put some of the boys' artwork inside.  Look at me, acting like I'm on Pinterest or something!  But I love the way it looks.

BROTHERS:  No explanation needed.  Just my cuties.

True grit

I recently finished six of the hardest weeks at work I've ever had to deal with.   I was filling in for the Buyer at work, who was out on Maternity Leave.

I was told that filling in would involve entering purchase orders into the system.  And that's all.  Piece of cake, I thought to myself.  When Maria started training me, I realized she meant for me to do everything she does while she was out, even though she works 40 hours a week and I was only going to be working 20.  Panic started to set in, and I seriously thought about telling them I just couldn't do it.  But two things kept me from doing that.

1)   When I was supposed to go back to work, and changed my mind three weeks beforehand, I felt like I let the owner down.  He had always been very good to me and I felt bad about how incredibly disappointed he seemed in me when he found out I wasn't coming back.  This seemed like a way I could make up for it, finally.

2)  I don't want my boys to be quitters.  I've been somewhat of a quitter all my life, and I wanted to prove to both myself and to them (one day), that I could tough something out even though it was really hard.  I've downloaded a book called, "How Children Succeed:  Grit, Curiousity and the Hidden Power of Character" by Paul Tough.  His last name made me chuckle a little.  There are many studies coming out now that even if your child is super smart, that's not enough to get him to succeed all the way through college and beyond.  They have to develop a sense of determination and toughness, and confidence that they will see a project through to the very end no matter what obstacles they face.

This is something I could have used some help with as a teenager and after.   I just stopped going to college the semester that would have been my junior year.  It just all got too hard all of a sudden.  I didn't have ANY gumption to try anymore.  I ended up with a B, two Cs and one F at the end of it, quit school all together and started working full-time.  I worked for four years, and something about that time changed me.  I started to have common sense smarts, and developed tons of confidence that maybe I did have what it took to get through college after all.  I went back and even though my grade point average was really hard to get back up, I graduated after two and a half years with mostly A's, a few B's and one stinking C.

I don't want my boys to have that lack of gumption, but I'm afraid they may come by it genetically.  Gabriel has already shown signs of this quality even at his young age.  So we will give them the tools, knowledge and living example to beat it.  So, I put my head down, and tried to learn as much as I could while Maria was still at work.  She received the news six weeks before her due date that she was dilated to a 1.  Panic, panic, panic.  But somehow that baby decided to stay in her nice warm place and didn't come out for another 3 weeks!  When I started on my own the Tuesday morning after Zoe was born, I came home exhausted but felt pretty good about how it had gone.

And so it went for six weeks.  I had a few really rough days where I barely had time to go to the bathroom or eat, and I made a couple of mistakes here and there.  I was mentally exhausted when I picked up the boys and sometimes just sat on the couch with a catatonic stare in the afternoons.  But nothing catastrophic happened, and I began to gain respect from everyone in the company as I handled things.  I received much help and some huge complements from Mike, the owner, and several of of the salespeople told me I was doing a great job. My boss, Donna, who I had overheard talking about me to someone regarding how scatterbrained I was and that she didn't think I could handle taking over Maria's job, even told me halfway through that she thought I was doing a terrific job.

Now Maria has been back for three weeks, and I've been a little sad that I had to hand the reigns back to her.  I felt like what I was doing was pretty important.   I felt respected and needed, and challenged in a way I haven't been in a long time.  But I'm still riding on the high that I did my best and finished the job.  And I shared with Gabriel the whole story, in the hope that it would help him get through his days at school.  I'm hoping also that I won't be so afraid now to find a new full-time, challenging job when the time comes.  I can learn something new even at my age!

How just "a" song became "our" song.

When we were planning our wedding, and we got to the part about music after the ceremony and for dancing later, we probably put WAY too much thought into what songs we chose.  You see, I am a bit of a music snob, and I didn't want the mainstream things that everybody hears over and over again at weddings to be played at ours.  "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor - no way.  "Can't Smile Without You", I don't think so (since we have been watching "Four Weddings and a Funeral" this song makes me giggle now).  "Macarena"-over my dead body.

I remember being at my office on a Sunday making CD's of all the different songs we wanted our DJ to play.  We decided to stick with traditional Big Band and Hispanic songs all through cocktails and dinner, then switch to a mix of 60s 70s 80s and current songs for dancing.  The thing we did not do was make a "Do Not Play" list, which is why halfway through the dancing I was horrified to hear the strains of, "She Works Hard for the Money" by Donna Summer.  I was ready to fire the guy on the spot, but Jav calmed me down.  This scenario would (and does) play out constantly in our marriage.  But I digress.

While we were planning and copying, we both realized that we REALLY liked the song "September" by Earth Wind and Fire.  Jav had liked it already, I don't think I had paid much attention to the song before then.  In fact, we liked it so much, that by the time our wedding weekend had arrived we decided to lead off the dancing with that song.  We had the Bride and Groom dance (to "Hands on the Wheel" by Willie Nelson), my dance with my dad (to I Hope you Dance by Leann Womack - his choice that ended up making me cry), and Jav's dance with his mom (Solomente Una Vez by Luis Miguel).  There is a very funny part in our wedding DVD at the end of their dance of me, literally sprinting to the DJ's table to ask him to play "September" to get everyone out on the floor.  And it was packed.

Sandra, my sister-in-law, told us later that year that she considered it to be "our" song.  And we realized she was right.  But we didn't really understand why.  We didn't meet in September, or start dating in September, or get married in September.  But it was so obviously OUR SONG.

Flash forward two years and four months, and we finally got to understand why.

Happy 6th birthday to my sweet, smart, funny, rockin' Gabriel.  It all makes sense now.

Friday song, on Monday.

I'm a little late for my Friday song from last week.  I'm taking a departure from the soothing harmonies of Gillian Welch from the week before.

We had an interesting conversation with Gabriel last weekend at dinner.  He's been wondering (and probably worrying, knowing him) about college since he started Kindergarten.  Jav was telling him how many years of grade school, high school, then college, and then graduate school if he wanted.

Jav says, "Or you could go to law school and become a lawyer."
Gabriel,  "What's a lawyer?"
Jav,  "We'll explain one day.  You'd be good as one.  Or you could go to medical school and become a doctor."
Gabriel, after thinking for awhile,  "What about guitar school?"

Yep, that's my little rocker.

We've been enjoying the Houses of the Holy CD for about a month now.  Here's my favorite song from it: