Houston Part 2

The Houston apartment is lovely! Very nice with crown molding, trey ceilings and architectual details.

Our first stop in Houston (after seeing Don's mom) was the hospital. Feel better Grandpa Gene

We visited the Natural Museum of History and saw dinosaur bones, an exhibit about energy, saw beautiful gemstones & crystals and more.

So many restaurants in Houston. A sentimental favorite for Don was Jame's Coney Island. For me, my favorite was the Buffalo Grill - I want to go there again!

Our most interesting stop was Uncle Jack's office, located in an old Brinks building. We saw valuable coins, gold, silver and the smelter in action. Reese held a block of gold worth $140,000!

Houston Part 1

Don's mom moved to Houston this past summer. A decision that made us quite sad, as we earch were committed to taking care of Mom and her companion as they aged. We each devoted time to make sure they were comfortable and happy. We could have been knocked over with a feather when were informed of their pending move to Houston.

After six months, Houston is not the answer to all of mom's problems. Some of her old problems followed her and some new ones have arisen.

Don's mom has a slew of issues that she does not want / cannot resolve. Since some of these issues actually have solulutions, so I am completely befuddled that her list of issues stay the same or actually grow. Don must give me a gently nudge to remind me to just nod my head in sympathy as her issues are lamented.

Our first night in Houston found Mom out of sorts. We were concerned as she was not herself at all. We were worried!

Kids hanging out in grandma's apartment. The apartment is beautiful, in a swanky building.

School Parties

Remember the fun of a school party? There use to be a lot of them. Christmas, Halloween, Valentines Day, End of the year - I am sure there were more.

The State of Texas has now designated three days where Food of Limited Nutritional Value (FLNV) may be served. these three days are no the dates of class parties. Our parties celebrate 1) the last day before winter break, formerly known as a Christmas or Winter Party 2) Friendship Day, formerly known as Valentines Day and 3) the last day of school.

I helped with the Kindergarten's "last day before winter break party". The kids were divided into three groups and rotated among three activities.

Freeze Dance - where the kids danced to fun music. This was my station. It was so fun to watch the kids "dance". They had such a good time.

A Crafty Snack (marshmellow snow men) and

A Craft Activity (snow man magnet)

The kinder kids are so sweet and everything is fun and exciting to them. They are fun to interact with before they are jaded with real life.

Lazy Days

Such a calm and quiet day. Don is at the office, Reese is on the computer (reading Wiki) and Walker is playing his gameboy. I just returned from running a few errands alone.

We are off to to Houston tomorrow to visit Don's family. I am making a pot of Italian Wedding Soup to bring for dinner when we arrive. I hate to generate any more work than is necessary. MIL is planning to make Don's favorite dinner (chicken and dumplings) when we are there. I offered to make it and bring it, but she says she will enjoy doing this for him.

Don and I studied the internet to find an activity for us while in Houston. We looked at many, but I am not sure we found anything. The acquarium (too commercial), the children's museum (too young?), the zoo (too cold?), NASA (too far & with an exhibit we saw here), the mall (too croweded). We will probably end up visiting some museums. Cannot go wrong there.

A Year in Photos

Our family photos for the year (so far). I could not get the movie to embed, so you must click on it. The movie is over 9 minutes long, so watch as long as you care to. I wish my editing skills were better. I'll work on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGubvZYMjA0

The Kindness of Strangers

My Asperger support group has been a wonderful experience for Reese and I. Reese spends time with a tight group of friends while learning invaluable social skills. I too have made many wonderful friends of deeply caring people that I cherish.

For the two years we have been involved, the group has met at the Region Ten Educational Service Center. Each public school district is divided into a regions. Each region is supported by an educational service center which provides teacher and parent training among other invaluable services. The building and facilities are state of the art and beautiful. Due to one dear man, Echidnas has had use of these facilities for free. How amazing is that?

Free sometimes comes with a cost. The cost at Region Ten was limited hours. Our group meets 6:30 – 8:00 pm. We were not welcome on site prior to 6:30 nor were we allowed, even in the parking lot, after 8pm. Echidnas is a support group for autistic kids, keeping severe time restrictions was not easy for the kids nor the parents. We were required to end our meetings AND LEAVE THE GROUNDS at 8pm. Not easy to do, as the kids wanted to unwind with each other after their lesson and the parents wanted to say good-byes after our program. It became obvious that we must search for a new location.

My understanding is the group had a terribly difficult time finding a host. We are a small, non-profit group run by volunteers. Some thought it would be difficult if not impossible to find a new location at a low cost. In addition our members drive from all over the city so we needed to be centrally located area, closing the area of our search.

We immediately found a synagogue who offered their pre-school classrooms to us for a relatively small fee. Fantastic! Our members thought they could do better. So two members kept searching.

Not one, but two churches were identified. One offered three rooms at a nominal cost (half of the synagogue’s rate). The three rooms would meet our immediate needs, but would leave us no room for growth.

The second church’s offering completely floored us. Community Christian Church is a 50 year old congregation, who built a new building directly next door to their old building. The old building is used on Sunday’s only and vacant the remainder of the week.

Community’s building includes a social hall with a raised stage (their old pulpit), a kitchen and classrooms. Tables, chairs and sofa’s are available. Astoundingly, they are welcoming our group into their community. They want no money or anything in return from us. I have met their pastor and board of directors and found them to be kind, caring and friendly individuals.

We introduced our group to Community Christian Church on Wednesday after dinner at Cici’s pizza. Our population of teens and adults immediately felt comfortable and fell in love with our new home. Most notably, two of our more reserved kids immediately went for the “stage” and began performing.

A special Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Christ Community church for being a new member of our Echidnas family.

Winter Break

Friday was the last day of school before winter break. I will do my best to keep the family active, fun and well.

Don is down with a cold – no fun at all, feeling miserable.

I spent most of the day Friday at the elementary school, preparing for the kindergarten winter break party. They had fun playing “freeze dance”, making a craft and a snack. Following kindergarten, I attended an emergency executive PTA meeting. Oh, PTA drama!

Reese finished up his classes and hopefully brought home necessary materials to complete his current six week grading period and begin studying for exams. He returns to school with dead week followed by exam week. He is an excellent test taker, so he is not worried in the least. How oh how can we corral this self-confidence to the right direction?

I am working on a list of activities for winter break to keep us active, having fun and out of each other’s hair for the next two weeks. Indoor swimming, bowling, movies and more. We will be in Houston for three days, but that is a whole other topic. I believe Don is planning a movie with Reese for today. I hope he is up to it.

My goal for the next five days is to stay out of the way of “Christmas people”. The grocery, mall and shopping areas are crowded enough with stress-filled people without me meandering around killing time and getting my kids out of the house.

Strep!

Saturday night was our Asperger group's Christmas party for Don, Reese and I. I hired a sitter for Walker so I could enjoy the party and enjoy being with my friends (the parents).

Mason was my sitter (although Walker was begging for Bryce). About an hour into the party, Mason called with Walker crying - his eyes hurt. Mason said his eyes were red and "it could be serious!"

By time I got home around 9 he was sleeping. He rarely falls alseep before 10. During the night he was burning with fever. My ped opened an after hours clinic so we went today. After about two hours he was diagnosed with strep. Said it is going around in a big way.

I have a PTA meeting tomorrow that I want to attend. Tomorrow happens to be mom's first day of retirment - so guess who is the babysitter!

Antibiotics, motrin and tylenol on board.

Life

• High today: 75
  
• High tomorrow: 45
  
• How is it I can go to the grocery store just about every day and spend about $45? Do we eat really well or just where does that food go?
  
• Last night of Chanuka tonight. I think the kids have already opened their "good" gifts

Happy Chanukah

Happy Chanukah!

Chanukah is a very minor holiday in the Judiasm. Many comparison's are made between Christmas and Chanukah as if Chanuka is the Jewish Christmas, but this is really not so. Most Jews do not make a big deal about the holiday with little decorating, no huge traditional meal, no huge mounds of gifts.

My family celebrates by lighting our Chanuah Menorah each night for eight nights and my children receive a gift for each of those eight nights. Our gifts are generally small. Our oldest realizes that not all gift can be huge, but our youngest would like to see something special every night. He thought his new toothbrush was great (!) until he realized it was the sole gift for the evening. Some of our gifts have been hits, while other misses.

We invited friends and family over for our annual Chanukah Party. "Party" may be a bit of a stretch. Don and Reese fried latkes (potato pancakes) for us all to enjoy. Instead of exchanging gifts, we collected canned goods to be donated to a local food bank.

Mom and dad pitched in to help make the latkes. Lots of work is involved in frying ten pounds of potatoes! It was nice to share the evening with friends and family.

Dinner was great, but I ate too much and am dangerous with all the yummy left overs in the house!

Mail

Our mailbox has been in sad condition for a bit.

The design of the box has a wooden facade. The wood came off the door quite a while ago. In an effort to repair the door, the door came completely off. Not too climate friendly.

At the same time, our neighbor's post came out of the ground. She has stuck it back in a few times, but it keeps falling over.

We decided to go in together with our neighbor and install a double mailbox!!! Don and I shopped on line, as we learned we had little to no selection locally. We also learned the cost was more than we estimated.

The boxes arrived via UPS - lots of them! And before the weather turned cold, Don and Reese got to work. On the first day of work, Reese dug a two feet hole with a digger - going into solid clay. Great job Reese! The post was set into cement - it will solid for years and years!

By day two a cold front came through with a bit of wind, rain and very cold temperatures. Don worked in the rain to hang the boxes.

A great job was done by my two handmen!!

Chicken and Dumplings

Today is Don's birthday. Happy Birthday my love! His birthday request? Chicken and Dumplings like his "mama" makes.

Now, I know how to make chicken and dumplings, but not like his mama's. Years ago, a co-worker gave me her grandmother's recipe and that is what I have always made. I searched the Internet for a recipe that I thought would be close - an egg dumpling. Just in case, I also made my recipe as well.

My dumplings are more like homemade noodles, made with flour, shortening and water. "Mama's" are made with flour and eggs. For each batch, I rolled out the dough and cut into squares.

The dumplings were then dropped into their own pot of chicken stock.

Each batch simmered to perfection. When the dumplings were done cooking, I added back in the de-boned chicken. Don said they were perfect!

I still like mine better and he likes his - they were both delicious and I am stuffed! When dinner was over, I combined the two pots into one! Maybe a new tradition.

Who Doesn't Love a Parade?

We went to our local Christmas Parade today. It was fun. All the local high schools marched with their band, cheerleaders and ROTC cadettes in addition to boy scouts, girl scouts, people running for office, etc. Many passed out candy which kept the kids interest.

Don found an awesome parking spot -- backing the car in directly in front of the parade route. We sat in the hatchback where it was warmer and with a perfect view.

Walker insisted he did not want to go, but I think he had a fun time. He played in the car before the parade started and then enjoyed watching everyone go by. A friend met us there so he had someone to play and watch with.

I found Mason - marching right in the front line of his band, but completely missed Reese.

Thanksgiving and Beyond

Sunday, Day 5.5 of Thanksgiving break. The day is coming to a close and back to school and work for everyone. It was a nice break but now it is over.

Tuesday was the Kindergarten Feast! The kids celebrated Thankgiving with a feast of turkey, cornbread, pumpkin pie and veggies. I spent the morning seting up and getting ready. My class had a lot of parent volunteers so I helped in the bi-lingual class where there were less volunteers. What I found were homemade tamales - delicous! One mom brought in four or five different kinds - what a treat!

The Feast consisted of the kids eating their snack together with all 130 classmates. That was it. No program, no festivities, no celebration. The Feast was followed by playground fun at recess and then Walker and I headed home.

Wednesday Walker, Reese, Bryce and I went to Chuck E. Cheese to play games and eat pizza. Fun for all. The kids really enjoyed each other's company.

We had a lovely Thansgiving with surrounded by our family and close friends. As always, Don roasted a beautiful turkey. I made Betty Grandma's yummy cornbread dressing and everyone else brought the rest. Reese asked to watch carve the turkey so he could learn how.

Following dinner, the sports fans found a football game, the kids found the Nintendo and everyone else gathered for a chat.

Saturday, a dear friend organized a ladies lunch. The tea room was fabulous and the company nice. We are going to try to organize again, maybe next time at a wine bar. Sounds good to me.

Today has been a lazy day. Don and Reese saw a movie and Bryce and Walker played together nicely until Reese returned and they ganged up on him.

Life is good.

The Week To Come

The "busy" time of the year is descending upon us. I just realized that Chanuka is early this year and I am completely unprepared.

Last week I spent quite a lot of time at our elementary school:

• Monday I volunteered at the Book Fair
• Tuesday was banking day - I was the volunteer teller, making deposits for our students who participate with our community partner bank.
• Wednesday I provided 20 baked potatoes for a teacher appreciation luncheon
• Friday I again worked at the Book Fair

That's a lot of time volunteering with our school PTA, whom by the way, I find most active members to be snooty and unfriendly.

Next week I have a PTA meeting and am volunteering in the Kindergarten classroom's annual Thanksgiving Feast. I was lucky enough to be selected to bring the paper plates so no cooking for me.

The kids attend school Monday and Tuesday only, so I will be figuring out how to entertain them for the rest of the week. Walker is a beginner agoraphobic, who will leave the house only when forced, which I balance with Reese who is always ready to go, go, go.

Don is off for Thanksgiving only. He was scheduled to be off on Friday, but since he missed so much work last week being sick, he will now go in.

I am super thankful that we do not travel on this busy holiday.

Link Goes Outside

Our cat Link is not a people cat at all and pretty much avoids us. He does sleep at the foot of my bed.

His litter box is in a closet with a pet door access. For the past five years, we have had a doggie door for our dog Ozzy to go outside. The cat has not once tried to use the doggie door.

We just got a new door and new doggie door to the outside. Link is now goes to the great out doors. He is very skiddish, but he seems to enjoy being outside. One day I saw him soaking up the sun in the middle of the yard, another day, I saw him watching leaves fall.

We went to change the litter box today and it had not been used. Guess he is doing his business outside (yeah)

Life

.. The weather woman said a cold front is coming through today - we should see cooler temps and 38 overnight!

.. DH is home with bronchitis. He thought he would be a good idea to have the windows open today. I begged for air conditioning

.. IT IS 85 DEGREES OUTSIDE right now

.. I am baking 20 baked potatoes for a PTA luncheon so each of my double ovens are baking at 400 degrees for 1.5 hours.

.. I dressed today for the cold and am burning up - please, oh please, let it come soon or I am going to change into my bikini!

Life

Reese

• Finally received his first ROTC promotion. He was thrilled. Three more pins to take on and off his uniform for laundry. He also received a decoration: a fancy cord to signify his participation with the honor guard. ROTC is SO about the uniform
• Begged to attend the last football game of the season on Wednesday
• Double begged to attend the last senior high football game of the season on Friday
• The senior high team is going to the play offs. When WILL the final game be?
• Still spending no time on his studies. Pre-AP classes are kicking his butt!

Walker

W: Is Reese home?
B: No.
W: I am going to Reese's room to play Zelda
B: Why are you playing Reese's game?
W: Because he is not here. Tell me when he is coming!

• Spent the majority of the week on the "Sad Pad". Teacher sees an extreme lack of focus. Medication made a huge difference Friday.
• Played school Friday after school. He is Mr. Walker and I am Miss Beth. He fussed at me for not following his exact instructions not coloring the butterfly like HE wanted it colored.

I Love the Zoo

It is fall in Dallas! The weather is perfect in the 70s and time to be out doors!
Today's activity was visiting the Dallas Zoo. Many years have passed since our last trip there. Everytime we are there it is better and better. The city continues to make improvements and make it a better place

I think the aviary was our favorite place.

Complete House and Halloween

Halloween was fun - both boys enjoyed trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Reese would have liked to have stayed out until midnight collecting a giant bag of candy. Sadly, that was not realistic. Walker knocked on doors, well doors that did not have scary decorations - he skipped those.

Reese wore his Scream costume...again. Don asked him if he could please not wear it again. I think we will begin prepping Reese that this was his last year to go door to door. Walker dressed as a "karate guy".

We left a large bowl of candy on our doorstep while we were out. It did not seem like much was missing upon our return. I personally opened the door for only two trick-or-treaters - that was it. On our walk through our neighborhood less than half the homes were participating.

* * *

Our guest bathroom was completed today and our renovation projects are compelete for now. Anthony and his crew did a great job. I am so happy to have my house back to myself. I can cook, I can clean, I can do anthing without having a crew in the house! If only I could find our lost remote!

I was too late taking a before photo. This is our guest 3/4 Bath. I sponge painted the walls green when we moved in. I defintely did an okay job. The vanity has always been too large for the room. We removed the vanity along with the mirrored wall directly above it. When we tiled the bath (originally carpet) we saved a few tiles to fill in the vanity area -for when we remodeled.

Demo. Whe we moved in the room was painted lavendar (the previous owner's color theme).

Walls were painted a soft white/tan to match the rest of the house

Smaller vanity installed. Without the dark paint and with the smaller vanity the room seems SO much larger. The mirror is hung too high, but any lower it would hit the faucet

Wordless Wednesday

Halloween Party

Our Halloween party for our Echidnas Group is over. I think everyone had a good time. I wish I had taken more photos, but I was busy with party stuff and getting everything taken care of.

Don and I worked hard getting the house back in order and getting everything clean. Don worked especially hard cleaning and really stressed to be sure our house looked good - I hope it was worth it as the house looked great and everyone loved it. This was the first time our group has been to our home.

Our guests were asked to bring an appetizer or desert and I think most everyone brought sweets. We had so many cupcakes and treats.

Don helped me organize some activities for the kids, but in the end they played board games so we did not bring out the activities. They did break open a pinata fully of treats and made chocolate covered apples.

Most of the boys showed up wearing the "Scream" costume. We had one medical professional, Fred Flintstone and a warewolf - oh and a fantastic mother son renaissance team. Here is my gang. None of me as usual, but I had on a vintage Hawaiian gown

Kitchen Update

I am enjoying my first cup of coffee from my new coffee maker from my new kitchen. Well, almost my new kitchen. We bought a new toaster and coffee maker to match the new kitchen.

Major work was completed on Thursday around noon. The crew will return on Tuesday to work on the details and start on our guest bathroom remodel. The bath is a small project and hopefully not that big of a deal (you can remind me that I said that).

We are very, very happy with our end product. I think the paint job could be better but all the tile work is fabulous. I should have cleared out the entire kitchen prior to the start as everything is dirty and has to be washed and cleaned.

Work remainng includes:

• completing the new cabinet, trim, etc
• Touch up paint
• Sealing Granite
• Adjusting Cabinets

In other news our television remote control remains lost. It has been gone about a week and we are really missing it. The house has been searched over and over and over with no sign of that darn remote. I have figured out how to turn oun the old fashioned way - you know getting up off the couch. Sometimes the controls work and other times they do not. I have ordered a compatible new model, because the old one is no longer made.

Almost done

Kitchen Woes

Progress, progress, progress! So much done, yet so much more to go. Anthony says he will be done on Thursday - which is ahead of schedule. Hurray, hurray. However, I will believe it when I see it. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with Anthony - he and his team are doing a great job. I am so ready to have my house back in order. I did cook dinner tonight - well if you count re-heating as cooking.

• The laundry room was grouted and the washer and dryer are installed. I am currently on load number three of the evening! Sadly, the washer is where the dryer goes and the dryer is where the washer goes so the doors are all wrong. Easily fixed.
  
• The countertop and backsplash are fully laid and looks FAN-TASTIC. Even better than I imagined. Hopefully, it will be grouted tomorrow and will look even better.
  
• Our less than one year old Bosch diswasher was not working. Anthony is pretty sure the pump is gone bad. My super smart husband figured out (okay, he called tech support) that the knock out from the new disposal was not removed upon installation. Ooops.
  
• My cooktoop is installed, but sadly I cannot find the disks for the life of me. Maybe they are hanging out with my tv remote control which has been missing for days.
  
• The cabinets are hung but look terrible. We had a cold front come through and Anthony thinks that is why the paint did not dry or dry properly (?). Tomorrow they will be sanded and more paint and he promises they will look fantastic.
  

So just details and just a day or two away. Then cleaning and cleaning and cleaning as I put the kitchen back together

Fall Concert

Tonight Reese performed his first high school choir concert.

We were surprised with the small space on the stage and the small number of chairs set up. Several groups performed, a combination of boys and girls choirs as well as some specialty groups. One group from the senior high performed - they were just excellent. I think this was the "B" Team. The "A" Team performers have a concert at the Senior High tomorrow night.

The quality between the middle school choir and high school choir is significant. The middle school kids were not so talented. All choirs performing did outstanding jobs.

We (I) decided to invite Walker to tonight's concert. He is older now and I thought he would be able to at least sit quietly in his chair, even if he was not interested in listening to the singers. Oh, was I wrong. I think tonight he attended his first and last high school concert. He selected his outfit himself.