Spring 2016 School Photos

Fall 2016 School Photos

Spring 2017 School Photos

Fall 2017 School Photos

Spring 2018 School Photos

Fall 2018 School Photos

Spring 2019 School Photos

Fall 2019 School Photos

Spring 2020 School Photos

First Day of School – Fall 2018 Eliana Pre-K and Emilia Pre-School

First Day of School – Fall 2019 Eliana Primrose Kinder & Emilia Pre-School

First Day of School – Fall 2020 Eliana Kinder & Emilia Pre-K

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Headed into COVID-19 Week #2 with a fully stocked house, home school plans, a healthy family, and resignation as we watching the impending worst-case scenario creep closer towards us each day.

I’m going to miss these adorable spring/fall photos we get at Primrose.  The photographer does such a great job – nevermind the girls silly pants.

I battle with her hair so much- I get it looking pretty good when we leave the house and then…. LOL.  I have a feeling her front teeth are getting close to falling out too as they are getting more and more crooked (from her fall as a baby).

This cutie patootie didn’t want to wear her dress since it was cold on this morning, but I was finally able to negotiate with her & get them dressed for school photos.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY:  Week 1 of quarantine in the books & I think we are done panicking and ready to settle in for the long-haul.

The Book of Unknown Americans: A novel – 2014 by Cristina Henríquez  (Google books)

A boy and a girl who fall in love. Two families whose hopes collide with destiny. An extraordinary novel that offers a resonant new definition of what it means to be American.

Arturo and Alma Rivera have lived their whole lives in Mexico. One day, their beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Maribel, sustains a terrible injury, one that casts doubt on whether she’ll ever be the same. And so, leaving all they have behind, the Riveras come to America with a single dream: that in this country of great opportunity and resources, Maribel can get better.

When Mayor Toro, whose family is from Panama, sees Maribel in a Dollar Tree store, it is love at first sight. It’s also the beginning of a friendship between the Rivera and Toro families, whose web of guilt and love and responsibility is at this novel’s core.

Woven into their stories are the testimonials of men and women who have come to the United States from all over Latin America. Their journeys and their voices will inspire you, surprise you, and break your heart.

This was a great little audiobook I listened to in Patagonia as an alternative to ‘American Dirt’ after the controversy surrounding the author.  It was perfect to listen to while traveling around Argentina & Chile on buses/vans to hear various stories of people’s hopes, dreams, and struggles as they came to the US to seek a better life for a variety of reasons & from a variety of places. The story was told through a variety of different immigrants, who each told a story that wove together as their lives inter-mixed and mingled.  The story revolved around a young girls who was brought to the US in hopes of getting her a special school admittance for her TBI to help her recover.  The story of her family’s journey to America and their tragic tale was a reminder that we all need to be a bit more compassionate and kind to each other.

• “We’re the unknown Americans, the ones no one even wants to know, because they’ve been told they’re supposed to be scared of us and because maybe if they did take the time to get to know us, they might realize that we’re not that bad, maybe even that we’re a lot like them. And who would they hate then?”
• “I felt the way I often felt in this country – simultaneously conspicuous and invisible, like an oddity whom everyone noticed but chose to ignore”
• “People do what they have to in this life. We try to get from one end of it to the other with dignity and with honor. We do the best we can.”
• “We would be thousands of miles apart from now on and we would go on with our lives and get older and change and grow, but we would never have to look for each other. Inside each of us, I was pretty sure, was a place for the other. Nothing that had happened and nothing that would ever happen would make that less true.”
• “But I worry what it would be like after all this time. We thought it was unrecognizable when we left, but I have a feeling it would be more unrecognizable now. Sometimes I think I would rather just remember it in my head, all those streets and places I loved. The way it smelled of car exhaust and sweet fruit. The thickness of the heat. The sound of dogs barking in alleyways. That’s the Panamá I want to hold on to. Because a place can do many things against you, and if it’s your home or if it was your home at one time, you still love it. That’s how it works.”
• “Life got its tentacles around you, its hooks into your heart, and suddenly you come awake as if for the first time, and you are standing in a part of the town where the air is sweet—your face flushed, your chest thumping, your stomach a planet, your heart a planet, your every organ a separate planet, all of it of a piece though the pieces turn separately, O silent indications of the inevitable, as among the natural restraints of winter and good sense, life blows you apart in her arms.”
• “A while after I was old enough to understand this story, I pointed out how backwards it was to have fled to the nation that had driven them out of theirs, but they never copped to the irony of it. They needed to believe they’d done the right thing and that it made sense.”

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: 

Week 10 : March 02 – March 08, 2020

Trying to get back on track blogging – obviously March has been insane, as we were gone to Patagonia the first 12 days, came home to a global pandemic, a bridal shower, house remodeling, a hacked blog, and our regular life craziness! We were gone this entire week, so our parent s& the babysitter (Brooke) took shifts with the girls – staying overnight, getting them to school, and spending some extra time with them. In retrospect, I’m so glad they had this extra time since we’re facing weeks without being able to see them now : (

Emmy always gets beautiful braids at Grammy’s house & the girls love making parties at her house with bowls of beans or pastas or rice.

We loved being able to Facetime or talk to the girls most days & we really appreciated when our parents sent us photos- like having special unicorn pancakes for Saturday breakfast.

They spent one night with Grammy, 2 nights with Dad & Brendd, and Brooke/Nana stayed the rest of the nights with them at our house.

This has been their favorite Osmo game – it’s easy & they get to dress & then color/change this character who will then do a dance.  It sends me all their “creations” on the parent app.

Fairy party at Grammy’s house!

A few random school pictures- looking at these, I’m now so sad that we probably won’t see these kids/teachers again for months…

It was reading week, so the older classes went in with the younger classes to read with them & lots of parents came into read to the classes too.

Dad & Brenda had a blast hanging out with the girls, including a trip to this amazing Tree House Park, playing baseball & introducing them to Alexa (see video).

VIDEO: Sisters at Grammy’s, EJ swimming, ER fixing AD’s hair, cartwheels, new curtains in training & shades going up, Hunter Bday, Danielle shower, sisters ice stomping

VIDEO: Eliana message to parents, Girls staying with Gigi & Grandpa, planting seeds, Gigi baseball with Coach Dan, talking to Alexa & making fart jokes, playing at treehouse park

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Got out for a run today & stopped by to see family (from a distance) & picked up Eliana a big girl bike. 

On Monday I started receiving emails from the people who host my domain that my account had been deactivated for various issues.

Then strange things were happening on old posts…..

Google search results for the blog were indicating it had been hacked…

Not much luck with doing things myself….

But by Tuesday, I started getting this message & tried contacting the IT person who had helped me in the past.  I couldn’t even access WordPress any more. She attempted to fix it, but the malware kept replicating and adding more files/code to infect everything.  I had to hire an outside firm (Sitelock) to clean up the files & it still even required some manual removal.

Thankfully, I was able to get everything restored by Thursday (on top of dealing with panic & pandemics).  I’ll be moving things over to Square Space from WordPress, which constantly requires updates and plug-ins to be adapted. Above is what the WordPress back end has looked like, which has served me well for many years (haven’t updated my look in 8+ years….see all the old versions of the blog here)

Thought I’d capture, for posterity, what the current look of the blog is since I’ll be starting & hopefully finishing a migration to a new site soon.

I’m looking forward to having some thing that looks & feels new, is more secure, and is less work to maintain.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Settling in for a 2nd C’virus weekend at home & enjoying the cooler weather & the rain.

February 2020: Eliana 66 months old & Emilia 51 months

Wow…given the recent events, February feels like a lifetime ago.  We had an awesome month filled with a 13th anniversary, Valentine’s for the girls, visits with friends & birthday parties, house renovations, Mardi Gras, and the Rockets game with Dad.

We traveled a lot this month, including a weekend in San Fran with my bestie! I had a quite a bit of travel for work & hubby also took a trip to Nashville before we headed out to Patagonia on the last day of the months

Both Girls – Eliana – 66 months old & Emilia 51 months old

For the most part, these two have been getting along really well 90% of the time & I love watching them  play together.

Eliana – 66 months old

I love this child more & more each day- she’s so sweet, kind, and caring (most of the day).  She’s thoughtful and protective of her sister. She loves helping & is so eager to please.

Emilia – 51 months old

If I could describe Eliana as generally “easy going”, then Emilia would be described at high strung.  I love her to pieces, but she requires lots of effort and attention. When she’s happy, she can be adorable and irresistible, but if things don’t go her way or she gets frustrated, watch out!  I’ve really seen some growing up & changes in her over the last month & she’s doing better (sometimes) about using the calm down corner & tools, as well as working on her “nice voice” (manners + tone) instead of yelling/demanding rudely.

-” why can’t we see Jesus?”  Eliana: “because he’s up in heaven taking care of all those people and we don’t need him here”
-Requesting tator tots from “king burger”
-Started saying she wanted a hair cut and short hair
-Explains the stars and moons and earth rotation

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Trying to find our new normal after a week into the coronavirus pandemic as things are changing rapidly & daily.

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World – September 2016 by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams (google books)

This book was on Sarah Bessey’s book club, so I added it to my HOLD list at the local library & ended up getting the audiobook in late February.  I was generally aware of both men, and I knew they were both regarded very highly as religious teacher, spiritual giants, and political activists in their country.  Having them sit down together, for several days of interviews, was remarkable given their age, health conditions, and travel considerations.

Getting the honor to “eavesdrop” on their profound and insightful conversations was a blessing that I hope the world will enjoy for many years.  Although they come from very different backgrounds & cultures, they had a great deal in common on their faith, attitude towards life, and disposition. I learned a great deal about their significance in geo-politics and how they came to be icons of their faith..

These are the most adorable photos from their visit- 2 long lost souls & gentle giants.

I don’t know much about the book’s author and how he came to be the right hand man to Tutu or how he arranged the whole encounter.  Their heartfelt conversations were filled with laughter and joy.

• “We create most of our suffering, so it should be logical that we also have the ability to create more joy. It simply depends on the attitudes, the perspectives, and the reactions we bring to situations and to our relationships with other people. When it comes to personal happiness there is a lot that we as individuals can do.” •”
• “the three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous.”
• “Wherever you have friends that’s your country, and wherever you receive love, that’s your home.”
• “You show your humanity by how you see yourself not as apart from others but from your connection to others.”
• “What the Dalai Lama and I are offering,” the Archbishop added, “is a way of handling your worries: thinking about others. You can think about others who are in a similar situation or perhaps even in a worse situation, but who have survived, even thrived. It does help quite a lot to see yourself as part of a greater whole.” Once again, the path of joy was connection and the path of sorrow was separation. When we see others as separate, they become a threat. When we see others as part of us, as connected, as interdependent, then there is no challenge we cannot face—together.”

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Blog got hacked again, with tons of vicious malware, but I’ve got a great IT person & spent lots of time on chats trying to get it (finally) restored and online again.

Recursion: A Novel (Google Books) – audiobook

Reality is broken.

At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery—and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself.

In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth—and in a remote laboratory, neuro-scientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery… and the tools for fighting back.

Together, Barry and Helena will have to confront their enemy—before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos.

I rarely read fiction books, but this one was on the bestseller list for last year & also available as an audiobook from the library.  I got to check it out right before heading off to Patagonia, so it made a great listen while we were racking up the miles in planes & vans.  This sci-fi mystery novel was full of twists & turns, but I loved how it kept me on the edge as story lines from 10 years apart slowly started making their way together.  Time is an illusion and this book made me to some serious deep thinking about our perception of time, reality, and our memories.  This book was about a memory machine that somehow became more of a time travel machine that opened up a Pandora’s box for evil and mayhem around the globe as the heroes attempt to undo their grave mistake. I really enjoyed it & I’d highly recommend it.

• “Life with a cheat code isn’t life. Our existence isn’t something to be engineered or optimized for the avoidance of pain. That’s what it is to be human – the beauty and the pain, each meaningless without the other.”
• “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. —SØREN KIERKEGAARD”
• “There are so few things in our existence we can count on to give us the sense of permanence, of the ground beneath our feet. People fail us. Our bodies fail us. We fail ourselves. He’s experienced all of that. But what do you cling to, moment to moment, if memories can simply change. What, then, is real? And if the answer is nothing, where does that leave us?”
• “Because memory…is everything. Physically speaking, a memory is nothing but a specific combination of neurons firing together—a symphony of neural activity. But in actuality, it’s the filter between us and reality. You think you’re tasting this wine, hearing the words I’m saying, in the present, but there’s no such thing. The neural impulses from your taste buds and your ears get transmitted to your brain, which processes them and dumps them into working memory—so by the time you know you’re experiencing something, it’s already in the past. Already a memory.”

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Getting our Coronavirus crisis plans in place in our house, jobs, groceries, kids, schedules, finances and more. 

J.Lo And Shakira’s Halftime Show Was Full Of Political Symbolism, And Here’s What It All Mean on Buzz Feed

All the world was grasping their pearls about these 2 powerful women who were showing of their power, confidence, and give-no-fucks.

Why I Chose to Delay Kindergarten on Busy Toddler
There’s no prize for finishing childhood first
This is an issue we’ve been grappling with as Eliana is doing private Kinder & then re-do public Kinder for a variety of reasons given that her birthday is in August. We’re able to pay to have her in school an extra year, selfishly want another year of her being a kid before starting “big” school, and want her to be the older kid in class instead of the youngest.

We’re doing this for the Present AND the Future
We call it the “Gift of Time” because that’s exactly what we’re giving our son – time now and time later.

Right now, we’re in early childhood and I’m so thankful he didn’t have to rush his way through it. The world rushes enough these days, why are we encouraging young children to grow up faster?

There’s no prize for finishing childhood first. 

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President on The Atlantic
How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election

This has been so infuriating and scary, and I don’t see it getting any better.

I was surprised by the effect it had on me. I’d assumed that my skepticism and media literacy would inoculate me against such distortions. But I soon found myself reflexively questioning every headline. It wasn’t that I believed Trump and his boosters were telling the truth. It was that, in this state of heightened suspicion, truth itself—about Ukraine, impeachment, or anything else—felt more and more difficult to locate. With each swipe, the notion of observable reality drifted further out of reach.

What I was seeing was a strategy that has been deployed by illiberal political leaders around the world. Rather than shutting down dissenting voices, these leaders have learned to harness the democratizing power of social media for their own purposes—jamming the signals, sowing confusion. They no longer need to silence the dissident shouting in the streets; they can use a megaphone to drown him out. Scholars have a name for this: censorship through noise.

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In the United States, we tend to view such tools of oppression as the faraway problems of more fragile democracies. But the people working to reelect Trump understand the power of these tactics. They may use gentler terminology—muddy the waters; alternative facts—but they’re building a machine designed to exploit their own sprawling disinformation architecture.

Central to that effort is the campaign’s use of micro-targeting—the process of slicing up the electorate into distinct niches and then appealing to them with precisely tailored digital messages. The advantages of this approach are obvious: An ad that calls for defunding Planned Parenthood might get a mixed response from a large national audience, but serve it directly via Facebook to 800 Roman Catholic women in Dubuque, Iowa, and its reception will be much more positive. If candidates once had to shout their campaign promises from a soapbox, micro-targeting allows them to sidle up to millions of voters and whisper personalized messages in their ear.

Parscale didn’t invent this practice—Barack Obama’s campaign famously used it in 2012, and Clinton’s followed suit. But Trump’s effort in 2016 was unprecedented, in both its scale and its brazenness. In the final days of the 2016 race, for example, Trump’s team tried to suppress turnout among black voters in Florida by slipping ads into their News Feeds that read, “Hillary Thinks African-Americans Are Super Predators.” An unnamed campaign official boasted to Bloomberg Businessweek that it was one of “three major voter suppression operations underway.” (The other two targeted young women and white liberals.)

When Nice People Embrace Evil Politics By Chris Ladd of Political Orphan

Nope, don’t think that Nazi comparisons are unfair or incorrect. I have just been astounded by the evil (systems, people, communities, ideas) that have been spreading far & wide lately.

The Republican Party today is the American expression of Fascism in the same manner that the Nazis embodied Fascism for Germans. Donald Trump is what Hitler looks like in a contemporary American context. Where the German Hitler was a wounded, decorated war veteran who dedicated his life to a noxious political ideal, the American Hitler is a cruel, debauched mobster, greedy, unloved by anyone who knows him, who has cheated his way past any obligation to the greater good, lacking any visible expression or empathy or self-knowledge. Trump is what Americans are at their worst, and it’s not a pretty picture.

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It is possible to carry out a clear-eyed campaign of resistance and reconstruction, with an unwavering commitment to justice, without abandoning humane values. Righteous zealots wreak havoc, regardless of the loftiness of their professed ideas. Do whatever it takes to regain control of this political system, by any means necessary. But if you want to see some form of justice and humanity emerge from the aftermath, don’t pretend that your opponents are some undifferentiated mass of evil. They’re just people. Given time, people conform to the system around them.

My father had a lifelong ticket to fly anywhere. Then they took it away on The Guardian
My dad was one of the only people with a good-for-life, go-anywhere American Airlines pass. This is the true story of having – and losing – a superpower 

This was a crazy story on so many levels- as a traveler, as a frequent flyers, and as somebody involved in litigation.

The loneliness of Elizabeth Warren: ‘I feel like I’m living in a movie’
In an interview with NBC News, the senator from Massachusetts opened up about the experience of running for the White House. 

I’ll admit I was late in getting on the EW bandwagon, but when I did, I fell in love with her energy, intelligence, and compassion. I was pretty heartbroken when she dropped out & it was clearwe’d be left with an old, white, male nominee….again.

“On the campaign trail, Warren goes out of her way to mention incorporating the signature policy issues of “Cory” (Booker) or “Julián” (Castro). It’s a nod to the people she sees less often these days, but it’s also a tactic to bolster her pitch that she can build coalitions from the constituencies of the candidates who’ve dropped out while also drawing a subtle contrast with front-runner Bernie Sanders’ more strident brand of progressivism.

The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake by David Brooks on The Atlantic
The family structure we’ve held up as the cultural ideal for the past half century has been a catastrophe for many. It’s time to figure out better ways to live together.

This was a really interesting take on changing family dynamics & how it takes a village.

More States Consider Free Tampons in School Bathrooms on Wall Street Journal
Wave of student activism helps fuel bills in more than a dozen states

Yes! I can’t believe we are even having this discussion in this day & age…..

As stock markets tumble because of coronavirus, this time feels different on The Washington Post
Traditional methods for arresting an investor panic might be no match for fallout from global pandemic 

Urgh….this was just the beginning of a steep decline & lots of market volatility.  We’re somewhat comforted by the fact that we moved a lot of investments around to buffer the losses.

The Politics of Dignity by E.J. Dionne Jr. at The Atlantic
A commitment to equal dignity can pull together a nation that Trump has devoted himself to dividing.

This is exactly what Americans (and all of humanity) need to do and hear now. We need a seismic shift in how we interact with each other.

The broad idea of dignity and its specific connection to work has been on my mind ever since. The idea appealed to me because it rang true to the core idea of Catholic social thought—“the equal dignity of every person”—that helped shape my own politics long ago. But to see it used so explicitly in a campaign was instructive. The idea finds its power from a deep intuition that the anger in our public life, across many of our lines of division, arises from a felt denial of dignity.

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Dignity is compelling because it is a value, not an ideology or a program. But neither is it an empty slogan. Dignity has strong implications for both policy and our culture. And it answers a moral yearning felt both individually and collectively. Lifting up dignity as a core national purpose is essential to renewing a society that has lost track of the powerful “We” that opens our Constitution. A commitment to equal dignity can play an important role in pulling together a nation that Trump has devoted himself to dividing.

Billionaires Are An Existential Threat to Democracy on Talking Points Memo
Billionaire candidates have become a feature of this year’s Democratic presidential contest. But should they exist at all? 

I’ve got all sorts of feeling about this & maybe Bloomberg “shouldn’t exist” (lol), but the wealth inequality and power dynamic is just dangerous and immoral.

Dismay over inequality comes in a variety of flavors. For many, it’s simply about fairness — nobody “deserves” a billion dollars, that level of wealth is nothing more than a byproduct of an unfair economic system.

But extreme inequality is not just about fairness. It’s about the sustainability of democracy. Concentrated wealth is concentrated power. We are seeing this on display with former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who through shear financial means has propelled himself into the race for Democratic nominee. This shouldn’t be possible, yet it seems most of the Democratic nominees don’t understand the graveness of the situation.

I just felt the need to document, in real time, the beginning of the global pandemic crisis & the sites I was reading/watching and how it was being portrayed at the end of February. [CNN]

The Houston Chronicle is pathetic and useless lately.  So little news and mostly entertainment/food/dining articles with very little substance.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Had a successful first day in a COVID world with social distancing and getting ready for isolated life for the long-haul.

Travels, adventures, friends, family, and fun in February! Valentine’s, Anniversary, swimming, swinging, dancing, jumping, squealing, and San Fran. Piano, soccer, and Patagonia.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Celebrating my sister’s upcoming wedding with a bridal shower at the Bake Shoppe today.