What is this white FLUFFY stuff...?!

You know, snow in our part of Texas is generally either slushy or icy. It's so wet it won't stick or it's like a snow cone and just makes a hard mound. So, what was this stuff we woke up to this morning?!? It fluttered. It floated. It fleetly fleed, it flew... (sorry, song burst forth...) The kids got to go to school late, so of course they were up hooping and hollaring well before they ever get dragged out of bed on a regular school morning. And I was SO looking forward to a bit of a sleep-in. Heavens no! I had to get the camera out. I'm not sure if the kids enjoyed it more or if Heidi was having the most fun.











When it first started coming down (the floating stuff, not the sleet that we got first) last night, Heidi tentatively stepped out on the back porch. Things kept touching her head and back. She was very confused. The last time we'd had anything like this was the day we brought her home last February. She wasn't so sure about being outside last night. But, this morning was a totally different story.







Heidi was like a jack rabbit hopping all over the backyard. Actually, I think maybe she looked a bit more like a deer. There was a gracefulness to the hops.

The kids tried to build a snowman, but someone was always counteracting the progress with a snowball in the head or face or something. They were completely wet and white when I finally got them in the door for more breakfast than they probably eat in a week. I even let them have hot chocolate on a school morning.















Ok, this one's a bit jack-rabbity.
























A winter wonderland: The birdhouse Pawpaw built, the day lilies peaking through the snow, the untouched front yard, the red leaf maple blooms on our new tree and my favorite - the bradford pear blooms. I worried how the snow would affect all this pre-spring blooming, but by the afternoon everything looked just as before.

So, yesterday, in the freezing rain, I was planting a few more violas on my front porch. Here you can see the violas (winter) mixed with geraniums (summer) and some other little white flower that I really like but have no idea what it's called - I'm sure it's a summer thing, too, since that's when I planted it last year. Everything is perfectly happy together on our porch.

This new little viola got a bit of snow.

Now, here's a picture of a REAL Texas snowman. The kids scraped together every bit of snow/ice they could find on the north side of the house where it hadn't melted yet. This was the snowcone consistency "snow". They packed this little snow guy together and held their breath until I got a picture of it. Notice the viola petal buttons on the little man.

Run, Heidi, Run!

Which one's bigger... tongue or ears...



Heidi loves her squeaky football.




















I can't wait for green grass! Won't be long now. Well, maybe, anyway. You know Texas... 30 degrees one day and 80 degrees the next. I was planting flowers on my front porch in the freezing rain this morning. Sometimes Texas weather is nice. Sometimes Texas weather means a line of prescription meds lined up across the kitchen counter.

Some of Dad's Handiwork

Mom had been looking for some sort of "game table" for the family room for some time now. E-bay had stuff every now and then at somewhat reasonable prices, but not being the ambitious auction-type person, well, E-bay's just scary! So, then came the e-mail saying that they needed to move out all these tables from the church. They were neat tables - a bit beat up due to so much use and abuse, but they didn't store well and the room they were in was being renovated and the tables would no longer be needed in there. After much searching, it was decided that there really wasn't a good place for them to be used or stored so they would just give them away. Too bad they couldn't sell them. I'd have bought one!
As it was, I got to take one home. I was so excited. And Dad said he'd get it all cleaned up and looking good as new. And a couple of months later, that he did. He stripped it and used tongue oil on the top. The legs were obviously a different wood, so he had to use a stain there to get the color about even with the top. And it's so cool to have it in the family room now. At the moment it's covered in a 1000 piece puzzle (and some dust), but I don't have any pictures of that.

Daddy-Daughter Dinner (Dance!)

The rumors were true. They danced. At the dinner. At church. Dad didn't get any pictures, but he said there were plenty being taken. I can't wait to see some! I'm surprised anyone knew how to dance at a Baptist Church. Yeah, right! No, I'm just surprised it happened in the church. Well, if I get wind of any good pictures of the action, I'll be sure to post some. In the mean time, here are some pictures of the girls with their date before they left the house.

The girls took some pictures while they waited for their "date" to get ready. Might be the only time that ever happens... (Dad was trying to get rid of the cable guy who had to come out and work on the new cable boxes Dad has made two trips to pick up this week after he got his Valentine's present - a new widescreen TV...)







Dad got the girls beautiful wrist coursages. They make them with velcro now! How smart!















Bear looks like such a little lady all dressed up. She talked Mom into no glasses for the evening.










The crew together on their way out the door.















Once they were gone, Mom, Bit & Little Buddy popped popcorn and watched "The Game Plan" in PJs. An enjoyable evening after spending 2 hours getting two little girls dressed and ready for a night out. I've decided I'm saving now for the cost of whatever salon needs we have for future proms and such. With 3 girls, I'm certain saving now is a good start!

Little Girl Loses It

Little Girl continues on her path of determined difference.

She has always celebrated the fact that she is a left-handed, blue-eyed blond, born on an even day in a different town (etc...) in a family of children who are right-handed, brown eyed brunettes, born on odd days in the same town (etc...).
The other children (example here) have all followed the path of least resistence when it comes to losing teeth. They want NO ONE touching their loose teeth and they are determined that the teeth will come out when THEY decide they want them out. NO ONE is touching the tooth but THEM. The other three have been very set on this group decision.
Little Girl has grown increasingly concerned that she is in the later half of her 1st grade year and has yet to loose a tooth. It is almost a daily occurance to hear her ask questions about when she will finally receive a visit from the tooth fairy. (I feel a bit of apprehension as I see this as a pattern she will probably continue - an angst to experience all that life has to offer...) She was absolutely ecstatic the day she realized that one of her teeth was remotely loose. She called everyone she could think of (or wanted to, at least).
She has been unceasing in her work to loosen the tooth as much as possible whenever possible. She has even begged Dad to "work on her tooth" before she goes to bed each night. As Dad was working on it last night, he was able to pop it right out of her mouth. Unaware, Little Girl said "ouch" and asked if she could work on it some. She had the washcloth (tiny teeth too hard to grasp with big fingers) and was trying to get a grip on the tooth. The fact that there was blood on the washcloth and in her mouth didn't bother her. In fact, she had been glad to see the blood as it gave her a sign that the tooth was getting closer to coming out. So, there she was trying to grab the tooth with the washcloth. Dad was just laughing behind her back. She tried again. And again. She looked at him and said she couldn't get a grip on her tooth. Dad held up his hand and said, "You mean this tooth?" She was beside herself with glee.
Maybe she'll be a nurse someday. She's the only one so far who hasn't totally freaked over the blood and slight pain that comes with tooth pulling. Even the boy is a sissy when it comes to having a tooth pulled.

Heidi's Little Friend

Our neighbor's son's girlfriend (got that?) came over today with her new little 9 week old boxer puppy, Hannah. (That is Bit in the picture with Hannah there, though.) Heidi took to little Hannah just like a momma. (something she will never be...) It was adorable watching the two of them play. If only we could get another boxer puppy that would just stay that little...

Heidi wanted Hannah to just cuddle up with her and be still. Hannah had no intentions of being "still". I had forgotten how Heidi had acted like that just a short time ago...

Hannah kept nipping under Heidi's chin at her collar and tags. Some of her "nips" were more like bites - puppy bites, though. Heidi kept trying to get Hannah between her front legs like she was trying to protect her.



They just tumbled and chased and wore little Hannah out. Hannah went back inside after their first play time and conked out!












Isn't that sweet...?







Ah, Hannah finally stays still for a moment.






Little Buddy REALLY likes little dogs. And cats. Two things his Daddy NEVER plans to have.

Rick & Bubba

Rick & Bubba are from my sister-in-law's old church in Birmingham, Alabama. Rick lost his 2 year old son last week. He spoke in an amazing way at his son's memorial. Below are 3 consecutive videos of his message. Wow. I can't possibly string any words together beyond that.

Rick Burgess, of the Rick & Bubba Show, took the opportunity to speak at the memorial service for his son William Bronner Burgess (also known as Cornbread on the show). Bronner had accidentally drowned in the swimming pool at their house. Rick delivers a powerful message showing his family's strong faith in God and helps us to understand what we can do to honor his Father and his son during this earthly tragedy.

Little Girl's Eyes

Little Girl is looking at eye surgery. Guess that's kind of a play on words . . .

She's had glasses for over 3 1/2 years now for Strabismus. There are several types of Strabismus (inward turning of the eyes). Little Girl's has to do with looking at things up close. However, she has a rare occurrence in that usually Strabismus is accompanied by far-sightedness. Little Girl is nearsighted - like both parents.

People ask all the time - how did we know she needed glasses? We didn't. We just noticed that at age 3 (picture), she was still crossing her eyes at times. We asked the pediatrician if this was normal. He didn't seem worried about it, but as he looked again he suggested a trip to the ophthalmologist would be a good safeguard to rule anything out. Our first pediatric ophthalmologist reminded me of the "dry-eye" guy on the TV commercials. Surrounded by all 4 kids(we had been at the office for an hour & a half - ages 3, 4, 7 & 8 - so you can imagine their exhausted impatience by this time) , I sat stunned as I listened to him talk about the "lenses we would be putting Little Girl in . . .", I couldn't take it in that my little 3 year old might be wearing glasses until she was 9 or 10. Of course, with the nearsighted diagnosis, I knew that this was actually the beginning of her life with corrective lenses - no matter when she outgrew the Strabismus. After seeing Dr. Dry Eyes, we scheduled our follow up appointment with a different doctor with a tad more personality (emphasis on tad), purchased our first pair of $300 (gulp!) glasses and promptly added eye insurance to our list of things to do! We've had monthly "tear the house up" moments when the glasses have been "lost" only to find them in a pocket somewhere, but for the most part she's done pretty well with wearing the glasses. Since they help her see far away as well as help her from crossing up close, she has 2 visual reasons to benefit from them.

Accommodative Esotropia-If excessive inward turning of an eye is first noted around 2 years of age, it may be due to difficulty integrating the focusing (accommodative) system with the eye alignment (binocular) system. Normally when we look across the room or beyond, our eyes are parallel, or straight. However, when we look at things up close, two things happen. We need to converge more (aim both eyes inward at the same time) and we have to input more focus, or accommodate to keep things clear. Children have large amounts of focusing power, and sometimes in getting things clear, inward turning or esotropia results. If the inward turning only occurs up close, as when playing with small objects, making eye contact, coloring, looking at picture books and so forth, the child may just need glasses for near activities to reduce or eliminate the esotropia. (webpage source)

(ASIDE: The "focusing" description above is interesting to me, because of the 4 kids, Little Girl has the most "focus" for any task at hand... I know they're two different types of "focus", but that just struck me as funny.)

So, about 6 months ago, Dr. A-Little-More-Personality had some additional concerns about her eyes. The Strabismus was doing ok, but he found concern with one effect of Strabismus.

Hypertropia implies that one eye is deviated upward relative to the opposite eye. Hypertropia may occur with other types of strabismus (which she has), or may occur in isolation. If the condition appears relatively permanent, strabismus surgery may be completed in attempt to better align the eyes. Many different procedures may be utilized for hypertropia conditions, the most common being weakening procedures of the antagonist (of the affected) muscle, and transposition procedures (surgery), whereby other muscles are repositioned on the eye to provide motility into the paralytic field of gaze. (webpage source)

She has developed Hypertropia in her right eye. He says that there is no rush on the surgery and we can wait until it's convenient for us. The procedure takes about 10 minutes and there is little to no recovery except her eye will be bloodshot for a few days. She does have to be put under. However, the doctor says if you have to have eye surgery, this is the one to have. It fixes the problem and no additional surgery is needed. It won't fix the Strabismus, but it will fix the Hypertropia which will help the Strabismus. We're still in bifocals for a while longer. It's amazing how those lenses keep her eyes from crossing.

Before Christmas, the nurse at school sent a note home saying Little Girl didn't pass her eye exam at school. We weren't due to see the eye doctor for a few more months, but since she needed to have the paperwork signed by the doctor, we went ahead and scheduled another visit to check her eyes again. Dad went with us this time since we needed to discuss the Hypertropia surgery again. Little Girl started in on her exam and I new immediately that her prescription had changed. She couldn't read any of the letters on the screen! It was obvious that her nearsightedness had gotten worse. After further discussion with the doctor, he determined that her nearsightedness and strabismus were actually working against each other. It was decided that it was time for Strabismus surgery. That coupled with the Hypertropia surgery as well would entail a 20 minute outpatient procedure with dissolvable sutures. He said they do a lot of those procedures on Fridays just to give the weekend to rest, but that other than bloodshot eyes, there is little to no "recovery" from the surgery. He suggested doing the procedure sometime in the next 3 months. And after the surgery, there would be a 95% probability that Little Girl could have glasses without the bifocals. She was concerned about "surgery", but the prospect of getting rid of the "lines" across her glasses was good news for her.

So, we're off for a 2nd opinion to another Pediatric Ophthalmologist in Dallas to see what his take on the matter is. Eye surgery is a scary thing, so we want to be sure we've got a majority vote before going under the knife. We'll keep you posted on how the outcome and decision pan out.

One note about Strabismus -you may not see any crossing at all. It's more in the way the light hits both eyes the same. It appears that Bear has a tiny bit of Strabismus. (Per her regular eye doctor.) She'll be seeing Dr. A-Little-More-Personality soon, just for a thorough exam . . .

Merry Christmas 2007

I have given up on the copying, printing AND posting of a Christmas letter! I have a drawer full of pictures we printed but didn't send (2005 AND 2006) and two years of letters that were written, but never copied (2005 & 2006). I even have a huge stack of red envelopes addressed from 2005! Can I please clean out that drawer and throw all that away now? Oh, thank you!

Let's face it. I have got it together on the picture and writing part, but the follow-thru to get it printed and mailed is just one step more than I can handle...

So, let me send you Christmas greetings from our family in my most successful format. ONLINE. Yes, I believe my mantra should be "have computer (Internet), can do!". Would you believe one of my least favorite classes in college was the computer class I HAD to take? I think that was before Windows or Macs...

I can't believe I've been a "blogger" for two years now. How times flies when you're having fun! I really wasn't sure about it at first - afraid it would eat into my scrapbooking time. Then, I realized how it expedited working on my albums because I could just copy and print my blog entries and have even more journaling than before in our albums. So, as I am into my 12th year as a Creative Memories consultant, I am enjoying even more technology related scrapbooking than ever. I am also still very involved with our Worship & Arts office/ministry at church and the Assistant Director of our School of the Arts where I coordinate student registrations and instructor schedules for everything from piano, voice, and guitar to drama, art, sign language and dance classes. Don't tell anyone our Baptist Church offers dance classes. :-)

Dad and I got to do quite a bit of traveling this year with a trip to New York in June and a weekend at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs in October. He is still with Interstate Batteries and venturing into new areas of responsibility each year. It is such a great company and he works with some wonderful people. In May this year we began a remodel of flooring in our house. Dad was so excited to be able to need so many new tools! We replaced EVERY floor space in the house. And, of course, that meant repainting and replacing baseboards. Oh, and we'd always wanted to put some crown moulding in the family room. Then, we saw some light fixtures that needed updating. Oh, and we still need to replace the sink. Oh, and... It's amazing how one thing leads to another. Home Depot is our home away from home. And we got a new Lowes in town this year, too! Those are exciting date nights. Seriously. Are we getting old or what?! :-)

Bit has begun a bit of babysitting this year - her siblings anyway. Although, I'm not sure it would be called "babysitting" as much as it is everyone just handling her being "in charge" while they're home alone. She got her braces off for now and started running cross country this year in 7th grade athletics. Having never run before in her life, she was excited to beat her time at each race this fall. We were proud of her for just working to improve her time and not worry so much about how she was running against the others. She was proud that she was able to make improvement each week she raced. She's in a select choir and ensemble at school and has enjoyed continuing her voice and piano lessons. She's decided music is really her thing. Wonder where that comes from...?

Bear ended up with glasses this year and now I can't tell the girls apart without a close look. Pitiful. They give me a hard time. And "looks". They give me "looks"... At the moment, she is taking a break from TaeKwanDo while we search for a new martial arts studio, but she and Little Buddy have gotten all the way up to orange belts. She is always into some artsy craftsy thing and does a good job of keeping all those wonderful supplies in order. She's got a thing for organization. Wonder where that comes from...? Just before she started 5th grade this year, she went to a sewing camp and made all sorts of things from shorts to bags to custom pillow cases. For a while, she was dragging out her sewing machine any time someone came over to whip out a bag for them to take home with them. Wonder where that comes from...?

Little Buddy had some exciting travels with Dad this year. His first trip was to Pine Cove Father/Son Camp in May. He had an absolute blast and still recounts various episodes from that adventure - with amazing accuracy. I can always tell it's a true story by the look Dad gives me that says, "I can't believe he remembers something he wasn't even paying attention to..." He also got to fly to New York for 3 days with Dad and Pawpaw with the purpose of going to a Yankee game at Yankee Stadium while it still stands. I'm sure his photographic memory could tell you all kinds of things that he saw - including a burning Taxi and the Naked Cowboy... (I'll let you Google that one...:-) Of course, the biggest highlight of the year for Little Buddy was accepting Christ after VBS in June and getting baptized in July. Little Buddy has another wonderful teacher in 2nd grade this year and I'm so thankful that our school administration has ensured that his teacher this year and last year have been a perfect fit for him. Granted, he has yet to have a perfect year with those perfect teachers, but he is showing such improvement in his behavior choices.

Little Girl is a hoot. She keeps me laughing. She's into everything. Wonder where that comes from...? She loves dancing. She LOVES doing her 1st grade homework the minute she walks in the house. She loves to read. She loves to write. We find her with her light still on at night copying the dictionary. We should probably worry, but it feels like such a nice balance at times... She just loves words and writing them precisely in her VERY neat left-handed handwriting. She's hilarious to watch on the soccer field. She smiles the entire time she's running all around the field and she looks so sweet while she's trying to take the ball away from the other team.

Now, if you read our 2006 letter that was never sent (it was "blogged" of course!), then you'll know the tragic turn of events as we added our first puppy to the household. It didn't take Dad long to find a new breeder who was expecting a litter of boxer puppies before Christmas. Well, as I peruse the blog to post links for various members of our household, I am greeted with a startling reality. Heidi really is spoiled. She has more blog posts than all the other family members combined. So, we managed to surprise (most of) the kids with Heidi's arrival at home a week earlier than we had been telling them we would go get her. And due to our sad state of mind at this time last year with missing Lucy, I embraced Heidi - stinky food, occasional doggie smell, slobber and all. Yes, she even sleeps on my pillow at times... Who'd a thought...? She went to school and learned all those well- trained doggie basics so she's a perfect pooch now. Even though she does eat toilet paper and dryer sheets and is encouraged by Dad to jump onto the kitchen table to entertain Mom... We love her dearly and she probably gets just a bit of pampering due to the circumstances.

We hope to hear from you if we haven't already, so please feel free to leave a comment or two. Sometimes it's nice to know someone we actually know is perusing our little website.

We hope your Christmas has been wonderful and 2007 has been a year to remember!

Dancer Girl

Little Girl got to dance in her studio's presentation of "The Nutcracker" this year. Her class did the "Russian Dance". I was so fortunate as to sit directly in front of talking dads for both performances. I was irritated... And I was taken back to my 17th birthday when my parents' birthday present to me were tickets for our family to go see the Fort Worth Ballet perform "The Nutcracker". Having viewed the slide show every year in elementary school, and read some version of the story multiple times, I knew exactly what to expect. My dad, however, hadn't a clue... He leaned over and asked me over and over what was happening all during the performance. There should be a mandatory waiver signed by dads in the audience stating that they have read the story and they understand that they will not ask questions out loud during the performance...



Anyway, I tried to get some good pictures of Little Girl on stage during dress rehearsal, but the lighting wasn't set and my pictures didn't turn out very good at all. And of course, Little Girl was being ornery and wouldn't "pose" for a picture in her costumes. Sometimes, candid shots are a nice change of pace, though.



Her jazz class did a dance to "The Polar Express". It was a fun dance and probably her favorite one so far. She liked the hat. :-)

The Elf-ing Phenomenon

Well, it seems everyone these days is getting "elfed"... I thought I'd do it to get a laugh from the kids. Especially Little Buddy. I knew they'd all think it was fun. However, I also knew Little Buddy would be completely embarrassed at seeing himself "elfed". He surprised me, though and actually thought it was very funny.

Naturally, the first time I set it all up, I lost it before I could copy the link and had to start all over. Try as I might, I could NOT get Little Buddy set up as the 2nd elf when they all popped up on the screen. And of course, the girls had to immediately point out that the first elf was obviously a girl elf... Hey, I'm not uploading all those pictures again, so like I tell the kids all the time, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit." Sorry for the girly figure Little Buddy!

Our little elves... (might take a minute or so to load - my kids can be kind of slow at times...)

Little Buddy Plays Dress-Up

Actually his sisters gave us some good ammunition to use someday to greatly embarrass him at some special time in his life. I suppose this was his way of getting back at someone. Although, when the girls dressed up their little brother he was smiling in his pictures. I don't think you would call the look on Heidi's face a smile... what a cute little sad pout! Poor girl! :-(

Here, you should always have a chance to redeem yourself from an unflattering photo. That wasn't her good side anyway...

Beautiful Broadmoor

By a really funny "turn" of events, we were the winners of an all-expense (well most) paid trip for 2 to Colorado Springs to stay at the Broadmoor - 2 nights/3 days. We were told it was a fabulous resort, but what would we know of fabulous resorts. I smiled and nodded and thought we were very lucky.

By "turn" of events, I mean that Dad won the trip by turning the game wheel at an employee appreciation dinner for his company and gambled the prize he won on the wheel to win one of the bigger grand prizes. And, of course, he won. The fact that he won the Broadmoor trip was hilarious in several ways (you'll just have to wonder) and I think I laughed at that the rest of the evening. This was in May.

Ok, back to the trip. Having an amazingly busy week leading up to the trip, I did absolutely no thinking about it or packing for it until after the Halloween carnival at school the evening before we left. I got home about 9pm and we were driving to the airport at 7am the next morning. I really couldn't tell you what I had packed, if anything went together and if I even had the right clothes for the weather in Colorado Springs. Being exhauasted, I had no choice but to take a short nap (short flight) in our first class seats. Dad had cashed in some upgrades so we could fly first class on our 5 star trip. Thank goodness the flight attendant woke me up with warm cookies so I could fully enjoy our comfy seats.

Our landing was smooth, rental car pick up was quick and the drive to the resort was fairly short. Driving onto the resort grounds was a bit overwhelming. The gate guard stopped us to confirm we had reservations and from that point on, we were Mr. & Mrs. to everyone. They put a printed tag on our dashboard and every time we drove up, the valet attendants were so numerous and calling us by name we had trouble knowing which one to tip. We got there a bit early and our room wasn't ready, so we checked our luggage and did some walking.

We found a place for lunch and then decided to get the car and drive up to Seven Falls and Garden of the Gods for some sightseeing. There is so much to do in the Colorado Springs area and you don't have to drive for hours to get to it all.

This is the entry to Seven Falls. Look at that tree growing right up through the little building!

Our camera battery died (like completely) just as we drove into Garden of the Gods, so we spent the next hour exploring the Colorado Springs area looking for a Best Buy.

When we arrived back at the Broadmoor, our room was ready and they called the bell man while we went on up to our room. He arrived shortly with our luggage and I swear I thought he was moving in with us. He walked in with our luggage and pulled the luggage stands out of the closet and started setting up the suitcases. I really though he was going to start unpacking them for us. He stood there (invading my space - you know how I am with my space) and proceeded to tell us everything we needed to know about the area. If I hadn't been so exhausted and still reeling from the sudden altitude change, I might have heard more of what he said. I was at a 45 degree tilt the whole time he was increasing his tip. He was a very nice man and he got a very nice tip by the time he headed out the door 15 minutes later.

We did a lot of walking around the resort. The fall colors were amazing and the whole atmosphere was so peaceful. We stayed in the main building, but there were at least a dozen other buildings as well surrounding the lake in the middle of the resort.

We rode the cog train to the top of Pikes Peak. These trees are actually growing straight up - that's how steep the grade was up the mountain on this train! It was so cold at the top of Pikes Peak and the air was so thin, we could hardly breath outside in the wind.

Outside the resort, the colors were beautiful (the Senior Open golf tournament will be held here next year). And inside the buildings, the decor and details were amazing.

One of our many nice meals, we enjoyed dinner our last night at one of the classy spots on property: Summit. Very contemporary and VERY good. And very green. Everything was green...

And speaking of green, I'm saving up to go back to this place. It was a WONDERFUL getaway...