They've Messed with the Wrong Girl

Christmas morning was spent at home, just with our immediate family. We leisurely spent the morning opening a few presents and of course, the best ones were things that the kids had picked out for us or had wrapped themselves. Example: Evelyn created her own wrapping paper by coloring a piece of white paper with a design and used it to wrap and tape a candy cane to death for me. She even created her own miniature tag with "TO MOM LOVE EVELYN" on it. Kenneth had chosen a chocolate-scented candle at Target with his Nana because he knew I would love it. I could not be more blessed. Later that day we headed over to my Mom and Dad's house and met up with them and Elizabeth's family for a dinner. The cousins always enjoy each other.

Today, I took the kids to the Texas Memorial Museum, which, despite its name, is somewhat of a natural history museum. The best thing about it is that it's free! The museum had several exhibits specific to Texas natural history, which made it more interesting for the kids. For example, we saw a huge underwater dinosaur skeleton that was found in the Austin area. Just neat. I should have brought my camera and am seriously regretting that I didn't.

On a different note, I noticed water leaking out of our water softener and when Rod got home tonight he confirmed that it was indeed broken--just a rubber piece on the inside so hopefully it's easy to find a replacement piece. All of the household water has to run through the softener (at least how ours is set up) so we had to turn off the main water source to the house to avoid continued leakage. I'll have to take the kids out first thing in the morning until it's fixed. We have people coming over for dinner on Friday so we need a solution ASAP!

Evelyn was outside with me briefly this evening when we went to get the mail and we saw our neighbor with several of her age-11 friends waiting for a pizza guy to deliver pizzas for a birthday party. One of the girls in the group must have said something like 'that girl is staring at us -- that's weird' because Evelyn heard it (she does not miss anything). I'm sure they were just being 11-year olds in herd form, but Evelyn has not experienced that yet. When we got inside she told me what she had heard and added "Mom. When I heard that girl say that, I just thought in my mind 'they've messed with the wrong girl.'"

Getting Ready for Christmas

Last night we got back from a nice trip to Houston to visit Rod's family. We saw his Mom and Tracy, Rod's grandmother, Scott and Lucy, and Gwen's family was visiting as an added bonus. Tatum is the most independent child I have ever met. Jeff had been on deployment for 7 months, so he just got back to his family and you can tell he's enjoying it.

We spent tonight back in P-ville getting ready for Christmas. The kids and I baked roll-out cookies and they decorated them. In contrast to the usual angels, crosses, Christmas trees, etc., Evelyn made a cookie snake for Santa "because Santa would appreciate that." She was actually very creative with the snake design.

We've been listening to old Christmas records that I listened to with my family when I was growing up. They really are much better than most of the currently available music fare, such as Mariah Carey's blah blah annoying songs.

Have a fabulous Christmas with your family and friends!

Purse Returned!

In a wonderful turn of events, someone found my purse on the street in Rod's Mom's neighborhood and tracked us down! Yea!

MIssing Purse

If you have located my purse (lost in Houston area) and found this site via my driver's license, please call me at 512-517-3746. Thank you!

Vacation Starts!

The past few days have been great. We hosted our neighborhood Christmas party and had a great time. Basically, everybody congregated in the kitchen the whole time and we laughed about suburban incidents.

We saw Tiffani, Jim, and Abby on their way back from a family trip to San Antonio. We met at Central Market, and Fred, Jed, Adrian, and Nate joined us as well. Later that night we went to the Zilker Park Trail of Lights. It was busy, but it was very fun. Most of the displays were pretty traditional, but there was one that had some kind of bastardized Jetson's theme with Santa in the flying car. Not sure where that came from. Supposedly Dell sponsored that display. Someone thought it was a good idea.

I went into work today, but now I'm on vacation till 1/2/07. Sometime over the break we have to work on Kenneth's Science Fair project. I have to admit that I hated Science Fair while in school, but Ken had a great idea so this one should be pretty fun--it's a take on 'Will it Float?'.

Evelyn lost her 2nd tooth tonight. She is quite excited. Nana was here to witness it!

The 3rd Grade Holiday Concert

Kenneth was in a 3rd grade Holiday Concert this evening. The picture is pretty bad, but it was the best I could do, given the seating and lighting circumstances. He was great! He had a speaking part (brief as it was) and sounded very natural, unlike many of the other kids. (Bragging Mom moment--sorry.) We heard songs about Christmas, Hannukah, Kwaanza, and threw in a Feliz Navidad. The kids were really great and were clearly enthusiastic.

After the 3rd grade portion, the music instructor told the audience that we would be treated to a 5-song set by the 5th grade honor choir after a short break (What does 'honor choir' mean anyhow at the elementary level?) This was a surprise to me and the other adults around me (after a quick verbal poll). I think they were trying to force a performance on an already captive audience. Love to watch my kids (or kids of friends) perform, but I'm not too interested in watching a random performance. Given that we were about to be stuck for 30 more minutes, we bolted as soon as Kenneth came back to where we were seated. You know there were some other parents thinking what a poor example we were setting. I call it taking advantage of an easy exit.

More 5-Year Old Conversations

Elena was at our house again today. While they were coloring, they had a conversation about stealing and it was so funny I wrote it down as they were talking so I could type it out later.

Elena: "I used to steal, but now I don't."

Evelyn: "Stealing is bad. You know what happens when you steal?"

Elena: "Jail. Jail, Jail, Jail."

Evelyn: "You don't get to see anyone in your family for three whole days."

Elena: "I'm not allowed to steal anymore."

Evelyn: "Can I have the red crayon?"

I Saw Santa, No I Saw Santa

Evelyn and Elena (our neighbor) spent time debating on the reality of Santa while coloring at my kitchen table today. Kenneth knows the real deal and is keeping up the charade until Evelyn is ready to understand. The conversation went something like this:

Elena: "My grandma told me there is no Santa." (I have separate thoughts on grandmas breaking that kind of news.)

Evelyn: "Santa IS real. I saw him flying to our house last year. And I heard his jingles."

Elena: "Maybe you're right. Sometimes my grandma lies. Dad says so."

Evelyn: "Lying is not good behavior."

I was snickering when I heard that last part.

Erin and Elizabeth

Thought I'd post this picture of us that was taken at Thanksgiving. I can't decide if we're looking more or less like each other as we get older. We'll be visiting Elizabeth's family again on December 9th, for an early b-day party for Caleb (who will be 3). The kids really enjoy each other.

Kenneth had his end-of-soccer year party last night. His coach made individual plaques with special names for each kid. She did a great job and Kenneth was so proud. His name was "Lightning Speedster."

Rod heads out to Las Vegas tomorrow morning for only about 36 hours total in order to assist one of his clients in a trade show. He plans to wander around taking photographs in his spare time, and claims that he'll need no sleep. We'll see. :)

Evelyn's New Room

Rod and I spent a lot of the Thanksgiving break painting Evelyn's room and installing a closet dresser and cubby set. It looks so good. She is so proud. (Me too!) Only a couple of things are left to do. We've ordered blinds which should be here in about a week. We've started assembling a nightstand, which will eventually be painted to coordinate with her room colors. It is an off-white color now with an accent wall in pink (which Evelyn picked out). We also accented the area around her windows in the pink color. Fabulous! I have contacted a few seamstresses to get quotes on making a window seat cushion for her as well.

I will try to remember to take a picture when she's not asleep.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did!

The Yearly Flu Shot

Poor Kenneth has to get his flu shot on Wenesday and he is very anxious about it. Evelyn can get a Flu Mist, but Ken has to stick (no pun intended) with the shot because he has a mild case of asthma. He was lamenting about it tonight and I told him that some kids have to get a shot every day when they have certain diseases (meaning, diabetes, although I didn't say the word diabetes). Kenneth said very seriously, "I know Mom. Rabies."

I am taking Tuesday and Wednesday off from work (of course, Th & F are holidays). The kids have one more day of school on Tuesday, but I will be participating in Evelyn's class Thanksgiving party in the afternoon, then we'll all go home and start the vacation together. I baked several mini-loaves of chocolate pound cake and pumpkin bread for the party and for a teacher gift (of baked goods) effort that is put on by the PTO.

Visit from Loretta and Jim

My Aunt Loretta and Uncle Jim flew into Austin last Thursday through this Tuesday to spend some time with my parents. On Friday night, we met everyone at The Oasis, which is a restaurant in Austin adjacent to a lake, and has an incredible view. Every sunset (which was at 5:33 PM that day) they ring a bell and signs claim that the restaurant has not missed a sunset for 26 years. Elizabeth, Caleb, and Kyle joined us as well (Josh was hunting). Elizabeth's family stayed with us at our house, which was great for the kids. Saturday night we met again at my Mom and Dad's house and had a fabulous pork roast. Elizabeth stayed through Sunday and joined our family at a birthday party where they rented out the entire Austin Children's Museum for 2 hours. From what I hear, Mom, Dad, Loretta, and Jim had a great time on Sunday and Monday, going to New Braunfels for a Bratwurst Festival and then to San Antonio. It was great seeing them. Now I am caught up with all of the Jacobson's except Keith! (Sorry the pictures are a bit dark.)

Are Your Abs Ready to Play?

This is the first time ever that I have gotten behind on my Oprah magazine. I realize this is a little pathetic. November is sitting on the table by my bed, right underneath the Real Simple magazine that is also unfinished (but at least started). The December Oprah arrived today. I'll have to force in a double issue of wisdom in the near future.

On a different note, the instructor in Krav Maga class was on his self-proclaimed 2nd Rockstar drink (which I guess has a crapload of caffiene in it) and made the workout way more intense than usual--and it's pretty intense regardless. The Wednesday instructor happens to have trained Navy Seals and reminds us of that periodically. At one point he yelled "What's THAT? What's that? I hear your Abs calling! Are your Abs ready to come out and play?!?!?!??" Yikes. Mine were happy where they were, thank you.

The Candy Swiper

As I got out of my car from my Monday exercise class, Evelyn burst into the garage and said "Mom. Someone is in serious trouble with me." She found a Halloween candy box that had been given to her by a soccer friend under our coffee table, EMPTY.

The trials and tribulations of a 5 year old. The picture was taken on Saturday by Rod.

Family News...

Evelyn created a new word on her own. She asked me "What do you call a sneeze AND a cough? A Snoff!" I thought that was really clever.

I think this is the first weekend in 2 months that neither child has an 8:30 AM Saturday soccer game. THANK GOODNESS! After tomorrow, we have only one more game week (and of course, one of them starts at 8:30 AM).

We just found out that Elizabeth is pregnant with her third child, due in mid-July! To borrow a phrase, Holla! Let's hope she can make it through the holidays without getting exhausted. :)

Snow White and the Ghoul

Evelyn and Kenneth got dressed up (of course!) for Halloween. We started the evening at a family friend's house for a pre-walk party, complete with Chick-Fil-A nuggets, veggies, and homemade sandwiches that were baked in the oven. Fabulous! I went home to answer the door for trick or treaters and Rod went walking with the kids and the rest of the party group. They are still out and have dropped by twice now to dump their baskets of candy so they have room for more.

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Do Fish Eat Breakfast Cereal?

Tonight we went to the elementary school Fall Festival. For 25 cents a ticket, kids could play games at various booths. I worked the Moon Bounce from 6:30 - 8. My job included manning a stopwatch for 3 minute jump segments, trying to allot the correct number and size kids in at the same time. I am proud to say that only a bitten tongue occurred on my watch!

While I ran the booth, Rod walked around with the kids to spend their tickets. I don't know whose bright idea it was to have fish as one of the prizes, but when I caught up with them after my stint as Moon Bounce Coordinator, Kenneth had a bag of fish. Great. We put them in a bowl with some marbles (Evelyn's idea) and fed them grape nuts flakes, which is about the only thing I could think to feed fish at 9:30 PM.

Exhausted

I promise to post some family info soon. I am exhausted from a busy 2 weeks of travel to Taiwan and then to San Francisco. The weekend was as relaxing as it could be, but I'm not completely back in gear yet, although work and family demands remain ever present!

Back from Taiwan

The week went very quickly in Taiwan. I would get to the Dell Taiwan offices around 8:30 AM and by the end of the day, would be at one of our manufacturers working through product development tradeoffs till 9 or 10. Long days and a short trip. The only night I didn't work late was the first night there. On that night, a colleague and I (she happens to speak Mandarin) went to get a massage at a massage school for the blind. It was really one of the odder massages that I've had. You are given full-length pajamas made of a really light-weight material and the massages involved a lot of stretching. We also visited a Taiwan night market which was completely overwhelming with the number and proximity of vendors.

On one of the nights there, an earthquake happened while I was sleeping; someone said that it was a 5.9 score. The hotel was shaking in a wave-like fashion and there was a lot of clanging. Apparently this type of earthquake is somewhat normal and happens about 10-15 times a year.

One the flight back home on the Los Angeles to Austin leg, Sandra Bullock sat in the first class seat next to me! she was reading a script and making notes in it and we exchanged very basic pleasantries, but I left her alone. I'm still impressed.

I met Rod and the kids (and Nana and Pops) at Freebirds straight from the airport. It was great to see them and I got really great hugs from Kenenth and Evelyn.

To Taiwan Again

I head out tomorrow morning for Taiwan for a quick work trip. Tomorrow the kids will hang out with Nana because they have off for Columbus Day. After that, Rod has full charge till Saturday, when I return.

We made progress on Kenneth's landform, adding blue clay for water, and green and brown clay for vegetation. Evelyn kept busy alternating her time between giving us small pieces of clay and coloring her Hello Kitty's Neighborhood coloring book.