Like the Dickens

another weekend

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:21:00 +0000

We had another one of those busy weekends.

Friday night was soccer practice, Cub Scout Pack Night & clean the house.

Saturday morning I got up early to start dinner in the crock pot, bake a cookie cake and finish cleaning the house.

Next we went to the North Texas Outdoor Expo. The kids had a good time at this. Especially J. He shot lots of guns.

A did the obstacle course, rock climbing, face painting & archery. B did archery. I talked to a lot of nice people about girl scout stuff. I'm looking forward to taking them to the Trinity River Audubon Center. They have a program for Junior Girl Scouts. Our family went the weekend it opened. It is a great place.

We rushed home from the Expo to go to a 1:00 soccer game (A) and a 1:00 flag football (J). Luckily they were at the same school. After A's game there was an end of season party. I brought this masterpiece!

I think I should start selling them.

DH took J to his soccer game at 2:30 and we all met at home afterwards. We had 2 families coming over to watch the A&M v Oklahoma game. I finished cleaning and making dinner. They came over about 5:30. The company was great. The game not so good. Poor Aggies. Kind of like Poor Irish, except I didn't get to watch that game.

Sunday I got up and went to church early. I worked at the church blood drive and then gave blood. Finally we had J's last flag football game at 2.

I'm glad that soccer & flag football is over. We have a break for a few months. It will be nice to have a few weekends where we don't have to rush around like crazy!

Date Night

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:08:00 +0000

We're going for date night tonight, dinner at Al Biernat's with friends.

I obviously don't do date night nor dress up very often. I went to say grace with the kids before we left.

B piped up, "Mommy, what's that stuff?"

I'm thinking he's referring to something on the pizza and ask, "What stuff?"

B replies, "That pink stuff on your lips."

The things they sell

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:52:00 +0000

I went to the gas station tonight. I had a problem with the pump so I had to go inside. Something caught my eye at the register. They were selling glow in the dark nude playing cards. I mean, glow in the dark playing cards are one thing, nude pictures on playing cards are another. But glow in the dark and nudes all in one! I was tempted to buy they just to see what they were like and if specific parts glowed.

Unfortunately they were $2.99 and I only had $2.00 on me. Maybe next time.

confessions

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:05:00 +0000

1. I fed my children Easy-Mac for dinner. It is noxious stuff, it goes against everything I would like to be. But it was easy. I'm hoping that the family walk to the local elementary and the civic lesson of watching us vote will balance out that horrible dinner.

2. I've wasted a lot of time Saturday playing this game. I was seriously getting mad at trick or treaters for interrupting both the ND game and the Clockworks game. Do not click the link if you don't have time to spare or if you don't like word games or if you can't type.

3. I have a Girl Scout meeting in approx 20 hours and I have done nothing to prepare. I'm up a creek. Oh wait, I did have A steal a log from a backyard on our walk home from voting so the girls could count tree rings. Maybe it will take them an hour to count rings?

4. I have 3 loads of laundry in the laundry room not folded. I'm not going to do it tonight either. It can wait for another day. I hate folding laundry.

Trick or Treat

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:56:00 +0000

Felicity

Ninja

Football Player

Waiting

I took the kids to a few houses on our street. Afterwards, DH took them over to Molly's house. I stayed home to ~~watch the ND game~~ hand out candy to trick or treaters.

I'm not good at trick or treat.

First of all, I was handing out all the bad, old candy that was in the pantry. Most of it isn't that old, just leftovers from the school carnival 2 weeks ago. But it was the candy that I know if I didn't give it away, it would still be in the bag in the pantry next Halloween.

I was anxious to get rid of the stuff so I gave out big handfuls (or hands-ful?) to each kid. Not many people had come by so I was doing okay. After 8:15 we had a big rush. By the time the last wave of kids came through around 9:15, I had to give out one piece of candy per kid. I felt bad and apologized to all the kids that I was running out. Well, almost all. There was a group of teenagers who came by, not in costume, who made comments. I almost gave them a piece of my mind. Instead I said "Happy Halloween" and closed the door.

I'm a pumpkin digger

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:49:00 +0000

We carved pumpkins tonight and that's what Brian told me. In fact, he told me I'm a great pumpkin digger. I found a great new tool for cleaning pumpkin guts, an avocado slicer. It did a decent job.

Here are the masterpieces. Both boys wanted mean faces. A did her all on her own.

The first picture I took had a ghost of DH in it. The kids thought this one was cool.

I think the kids had fun but they are a little glum. One year ago, the cousins were here. A, especially, was missing her cousin today. She is going trick or treating with her friend Molly tomorrow night. They are both wearing Felicity dresses and they should have a grand time, even if E isn't here to trick or treat with them.

We made the web!

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Here's an article about the girl scout trip to the garden.

Garden outing

The Halloween Parade

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:56:00 +0000

The Annual Halloween Parade is a neighborhood tradition. Everyone gathers and walks two blocks down Snow White. At the end of the parade, there are pinatas, popcorn and apple cider. A very simple celebration and the kids really enjoy it.

Here are my participants.

Hermione, Ninja & Football player.

The weekend

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:38:00 +0000

I had a super long weekend.

Here is my synopsis I just sent to my friend:

Friday 5:30 - 12:00 Ursuline reunion
Saturday 12:00 - 2:00 Jesuit
Saturday 10:15 - Wake up. Oops. I was suppose to be up at 9am. Shopping for luncheon
Saturday 11:30 - 12:30 - Ursuline Luncheon
Saturday 4:30 - 11:30 Ursuline/Jesuit reunion
Saturday 12:00 - 2:00 Party at Eric's hotel room, constant pleading with my eyes to go home now!
Sunday 10:15 - Wake up. Oops. Kids are coming home in 15 minutes.
Sunday 10:45 - 2:30 Girl Scout trip to the community garden (it rocked!)
Sunday 3:00 - 4:00 J's flag football game
Sunday 4:00 - 5:00 Neighborhood halloween parade
Sunday 5:30 - 8:00 family dinner for Sister #5's birthday
Sunday 8:00 - 9:30 struggle with A to finish her animal report due on Monday
Sunday 10:00 - collapse with exhaustion!!!!!

I'm still tired. And I have a mountain of laundry to do.

The girl scout trip to the garden was fabulous. The worm lady did a vermicomposting demonstration with the girls. Next, she led us through the donation garden. One section of the garden is set aside for donation. Everyone helps with that section and the produce is given to a group who distributes it to food banks & other agencies. She then led us though the rest of the garden. She showed us her own plot and compared the growth in her garden in which she used the vermicompost & "worm wine" to that of other plots that hadn't used it. The girls got to see the benefits of the worms. After that the bee lady did a demonstration. It was very interesting. Several of the girls, including A, were apprehensive about being around the bees but most of them came around. She mentioned that she is going to order child size bee keeping suits so she can take children closer to the bees. A actually said she wanted to go back and try it with the suit on. That is an amazing step forward for a child who jumped out of the shower last night because a teeny, tiny spider was on its way down the drain.

The best part of the trip:

Our own worms!

Scientist of the Week

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Last Tuesday, J was Scientist of the Week. His experiment was about germs and washing hands. They used a special "germ" powder that glowed under the blue light. They practiced their good hand washing techniques to clean it all off.

knitting

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:18:00 +0000

I started another scarf. It is a complicated (for me) 32-row lace pattern that is going slowly. But I'm liking it.

Muir

And for color reference (the others are too blue)

Honey

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +0000

We had honeycomb from the bees in our kitchen for a couple of weeks now. Even though the honey is tasty, eating it straight from the comb is not. You can break off a piece, chew the honey out and spit out the wax. You can squish the comb and squeeze the honey out into your mouth. Neither method was great.

I googled and decided to try the pantyhose method. I found a pair of unused white hose from a wedding 15 years ago. I decided, after sitting in my sock drawer for that long, I really wasn't going to wear them. I smashed the honeycomb with a meat mallet and managed to get the mess into the cut off pantyhose leg. It is hanging from one of my kitchen cabinets and slowly dripping into the ziploc container.

Now I have to search for recipes using honey!

Football conversation

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:21:00 +0000

J (picking up DH's A&M football helmet): Daddy, did you play football at A&M?
DH: No, I bought the helmet from Texas A&M.
J: When I grow up I'm going to play football at Texas A&M.
DH: Really?
j: Why didn't you play football at A&M?
DH: Because I wasn't good enough. You have to be a really good football player to play at A&M.
J: So you do you have be good, like Tony Romo good?
DH: Yeah, like Tony Romo good.
J: So you have to be good enough to throw 3 interceptions in a game???

Oh, that was a funny conversation. Poor Cowboys. Even the 6 year has lost his enthusiasm.

Family Travelling

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Last weekend I went with my mother and Sister #5 to meet the others in Palm Springs, CA. The trip was sort of planned because we have been in a book club. We just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kinsolver. We were suppose to try to eat local while on the trip.

Here are the highlights with the pictures I have. My sisters have the other pictures.

Dinner at Hamburger Mary's. We went because Sister#5 said they were suppose to have a bean burger and good local meat. Instead it was a burger place that caters to the gay and lesbian community with exotic meat burgers from all over. It was very funny when we figured it out.

The next day we went to the quilt store & the Palm Spring Aerial Tramway, went shopping at Trader Joe's & made dinner at the condo. That night we made cheese from the book

The sisters and mom at the top of the tram

Mom & Sister#4 & #5 next to a big rock

Sister #2 smelling the butterscotch tree

Saturday we went to a market that was a big dud, shopping in downtown, snacked on the cheese, worked on the puzzle, ordered in some good pizza & salads, went to the hottub and then finished the puzzle.

The masterpiece jigsaw of Chicago

Sunday morning we went to mass, had a big breakfast of leftovers, cleaned up and left.

It was a lovely, lazy weekend. We should try and do it again next year.

bee gone

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:17:00 +0000

The bee people came yesterday to remove the bees. It was such an interesting process. We got to see bees being "born". The bee guy help the comb up and we could see the new bees breaking out of the comb. He left us with some of the comb so we could have the fresh honey. I'm not a such honey fan, but it tasted good. He attached several of the combs to frames and put them in a box over the meter box. It will stay for a few days to give the bees a chance to reorient.

the first comb

the lid

looking for the queen

the bee box

to bee or not to bee

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:08:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we noticed bees flying around our bushes. On closer inspection, we realized that they were flying in and out of a cement box that we think houses water shutoff valves.

I called a bee removal company and they said to give it 3-4 days to see if it was just a moving swarm. If there were still there after the wait, then call back.

We went to A&M and A got sick so I didn't bother to look again until Wednesday and sure enough the bees were still there. I started calling to find out what to do with the bees.

The first place I called charged $250.00 for bee removal. Ouch. I tried the next one on the list. They charged $200.00 for bee extermination. It was cheaper but they were coming to kill the bees. I asked if they did bee removal instead of killing them. She said it was an extra $100 to move the bees. If I wanted to set up a hive in our backyard it was an extra $200 with no guarantee that the bees would live or stay. I called the first people back and found out that it was $250.00 to kill the bees, and an extra $100.00 to move the hive.

This is ridiculous. Bees are dying all over the country and these people want to charge me $200-$250 to voluntarily kill them. I wasn't going to do it.

Luckily I thought to call the County Agriculture Extension Office. They gave me the phone number of bee people who remove wild bees. The first guy I talked to would remove the bees for $175, if nothing had been sprayed on the bees. I guess that makes them angry and he won't deal with that. At least it was cheaper than killing them. The next two numbers were no longer in service. The last one said he no longer dealt with bees but gave the number for the Texas Honey Bee Guild.

The Texas Honey Bee Guild is a couple who build hives at other peoples' homes and take care of the bees. They give some of the honey to the people who house the hives, the rest they sell in local health food stores as ZIP CODE honey. I guess it is good for allergies to eat honey made from pollen in your area.

She said since the bees were not building in a wall or eave, she could remove them for $50.00. That's more like it. She is suppose to try and come by on Monday to take the bees. I hope I'm home to watch.

Maybe someday I'll have a bee hive. That's almost as cool as having chickens!

Gig 'Em

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:15:00 +0000

Last weekend we drove the kids down to College Station, Texas for their first college football game.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the George Bush Presidential Library. We took a walk through the grounds and around a small lake while waiting for it to open. It was very pretty.

(DH wanted to use one of these pictures of the kids for a Christmas card photo. I told him I couldn't sent a picture of the kids decked out in Aggie gear for Christmas.)

The library was very interesting. There was a scavenger hunt for the kids to play, so I spent most of my time finding Little Millie dogs, reading questions and writing answers. I didn't actually read much about George Bush, but there was a lot about him that I never knew. I'd like to go back without children and spend more time there.

After the library we went to Northgate, ate lunch & played pool at the Chicken. We walked through campus and played near the stadium. They had bounce houses, slides and lot of giveaways.

The kids took part in the kids' yell practice.

We watched the band lead the football players to the stadium and tossed the football around in the shade. After buying a sausage on a stick, we finally headed into the stadium. The game started off shaky but the Aggies pulled through and ended up routing the UAB team. Brian loved the game. He especially liked the fire breathing dragon mascot from UAB. He said he wants to be a fire breathing dragon when he grows up but he wants to be a red Aggie fire breathing dragon.

A had had enough football by halftime. We ended up sitting on a very nice grassy lawn and watching the game on the jumbotron. J went back and forth between the bleacher seats and the lawn. B stayed with DH the entire time not wanting to miss a minute of the football game.

At the end of the night A was in a fit. She complained about her legs hurting. The hotel room where we stayed was super musty/moldy/stinky so we ended up driving home after the game.

It was good thing we did because A woke up Sunday morning with a 103 fever. A trip to the doctor on Monday morning confirmed flu A, but the doctor said it was swine flu. She said the swine flu shows up as flu A but you have to sent it in to get it typed as swine flu. There are so many people sick they are only typing the flu for people who are hospitalized.

Luckily she had a very mild case and was back to school by Wednesday. I spent this week in a panic that all of us were going to get sick. We had all shared water bottles on Saturday before she got sick. Every twinge in my body was obviously the start of the swine flu. Every cough by the boys made me check them for fever. It has been almost a week now so I think we're safe and managed to get away with only one person sick.

Now I need to go knock on wood!

what I have been doing

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:30:00 +0000

I haven't been doing a whole lot lately. Well, I've been doing a lot of the everyday life stuff, but I haven't been blogging. I have things to blog about, I just haven't gotten around to it.

What I have done in my spare time (plus a 3 hour trip to College Station) is knitting a new scarf. It is Melody's Shawl(rav link) from Morehouse Farm. I bought the yarn at the LYS for my birthday. I'm giving it away to the other girl scout leader for her birthday tomorrow.

She told me to knit something for her birthday on her last birthday. I'm pretty sure she was joking, but I held her at her word. I hope she likes it.

Adoration

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:28:00 +0000

We went to A's soccer game today. BILL was there. He is the older brother of A's teammate. The boys love BILL! (They definitely use capitals because they are always so excited to see him!) I love Bill. He is so sweet to my boys, he plays with them, he watches out for them, he waves to them when he sees them at church or school.

Today he sat on the sideline and listened while B told him everything. I asked Bill later what B has said, Bill said he wasn't exactly sure, but he just kept saying "Uh-huh" and B was happy. It is nice to have boys like Bill for my guys to look up to!

On my own

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:07:00 +0000

DH left yesterday to go to the lake for 5 days for Guys' weekend.

I don't like not having someone to tag team with. It is so much easier to parent when I can say "Go see your dad!"

Actually, the children have been good and, because of rain, our schedule has been easy. Last night, after the exhausting bedtime routine & actually remembering to shut the garage door and lock up the house, I went to bed. I realized that there are some advantages to being alone.

I got to watch tv without ever changing the channel because a commercial came on or the game was getting boring.

I kicked the covers off the end of the bed so my feet were open and free and didn't upset anyone.

I got to sleep in bed all night without once having to shove someone over to make them stop snoring.

I'm looking forward to DH coming home in 3.5 days, but it is nice to enjoy the little pleasures of being on my own.

birthday

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:46:00 +0000

It's DH's birthday today.

I was a little worried about how today would go. We had a lot going on. I had to go to the grocery, make an apple pie (DH doesn't do birthday cake), eat lunch with the ILs, go to 2 soccer games, pick up a jersey for football today, take J to a birthday party & make dinner.

Luckily it rained 3 inches and the soccer games were cancelled. We met the ILs for lunch at a great bbq restaurant. We had such a huge meal both DH & I decided to skip a big dinner for his birthday and do it tomorrow night. I managed to make the pie and used my new birthday present to make homemade vanilla bean ice cream. It was yummy!

Happy Birthday DH! Only 365 days until 40!

Only me!

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:38:00 +0000

I somehow managed to get a parking ticket while parked in front of my own house! I'm so mad.

I guess I can't be too mad because I was parked facing the wrong direction, but I'm mad. I live on a very small residential street. There is hardly any traffic on this street. The neighbors park their cars the wrong direction too. None of them got tickets. I guess none of them were parked out there at 11:15 this morning.

I'm mad because when I park that direction, my car in the shade of the tree in the front yard. That is significant here in Texas.

I'm mad because now I'll have to park in the garage to keep out of the heat, which means I'll waste extra electricity opening the driveway gate multiple times a day.

I'm mad because it will mess up my driving habits. I'll have to go a different way so my car is parked in the correct direction. I hate driving down that end of the street. It has been patched and re-patched and it's all bumpy.

Honestly, something like this would only happen to me.

(I did call the parking department to make sure none of the neighbors had call to rat me out and was assured they did not work based on complaints. The neighbors can be like that so I had to make sure!)

Labor Day weekend

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:20:00 +0000

We had a good weekend.

My friend Shannon was in town so we went shopping on Friday night. Saturday, DH went to A&M for the football game. Kids & I ran errands & watched the ND game. (Yeah, they won and won well!) Sunday we went to church & DH came home.

We spent some time just lazing around. The kids concocted a plot. They cleaned the playroom and then asked to go to the mall. Unfortunately, A wanted to go to the Galleria and the American Girl Store, J wanted to go to Northpark and the Lego store. We were at an impass, so we went bowling.

I managed to beat DH 102 to 98 in the first game. He reset the scores before I could get photographic evidence. He had a much better game the second time and I managed a 110. Probably my best bowling score ever!

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day!

Too busy

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:39:00 +0000

Since school & kid activities have started, I've been too busy & too tired to think about blogging. I made delicious homemade ice cream and I didn't even think to take a picture and blog about it. Next time.

B has been on a roll lately. The kid never had a baby book, I could at least record his memorable moments in the blog.

Story 1:

A had visitation day the first day back to dance. The whole family went and B's assessment was "Dance class is BORINNNNNGGGG!" There is a boy in A's dance class this year. About half way through tap, B turned to DH and asked "Why's that boy in dance class?" DH told him that he was dancing. B replied, "Boys don't dance." DH replied that boys do dance, there was a boy dancing right there. B paused and then proclaimed, "That boy's not going to have a girlfriend!" DH lost it. At the end of the song, he moved chairs next to me and told me the story. We were both in tears. A was across the room looking mortified at our behavior. Needless to say, DH left with J & B right after that. Good thing he didn't see the boy in ballet class! Who know what he would have said.

Story 2:

B started back to pre-school this week. He moved into the "Big Kid" hall and joined a MWF 3 year old class. Last Friday was "Meet the Teacher" day. B had fun, played with toys and the two boy who were in his class last year. After we left his new classroom, we went down the other hall to see his old teacher, Mrs. Rocha. B loves Mrs. Rocha. She came out and hugged him and talked to him about his summer and how big he was since he was going to the "Big Kid" hall.

About an hour after we got home, B came up to me. He tapped me on the leg and told me "Mommy, I'm really not very big!" The poor kid wants his favorite teacher back and to stay in the "Little Kid" hall. He was so earnest. This is coming from a kid who has been insisting he was big from the minute he could talk. It made me want to cry.

I was afraid he would have problems when I dropped him off yesterday. He got out of the car and had to decide which door to go through. He asked if we went down the curving sidewalk, could he go to Mrs. Rocha's class. I said no, he could go down the curving sidewalk and he would go to Mrs. O'Neal class. He said okay. He ran to the sidewalk, got down in his sprinter's crouch, counted to 3 and raced to school. He was perfectly fine, I should have known not to worry about B.

Canada Shawl

rehagen99@hotmail.com (Sarah) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:45:00 +0000

I started working on my Canada shawl (Wool Peddler's Shawl from Folk Shawls, Rav Link) on March 25th. It sat for a long time on my desk. After a good month of working on it again, I finally finished it today, August 25th. Five months is a long time, but at least it is done.

Now I'm ready for the triple digit weather to go away so I can actually wear it.