Speed Update

Posted on | December 3, 2008 | No Comments

Hmm. I wonder if giving it that title will make me feel obliged to actually make it brief.

If brevity is the soul of wit, then my soul is an empty pit. You can quote me on that.

Since the last post, this is what happened that is shareable:

- J and NM played their last soccer games of the season. J actually played for about 30 seconds. There was an award ceremony afterwards and his coach said “I hope you play next season!” He absolutely loves his trophy. NM got a medal and is looking forward to spring season already.

- I ended and we (hubby and I) finished painting NM’s room. It looks so amazing. I don’t say that because it’s a smashing job (it’s pretty good) but the change from the color “burnt almond” to “lava blue” on the bottom and “horseradish” (a warm white) everywhere else is amazing. The other color sucked up all the light and now it’s bounced all over the place. The room looks so much nicer now! I’d have photos posted but Flickr is still misbehaving for me.

- Sprocket learned to play volleyball with a balloon. I’m considering passing on the video to America’s Funniest. Do they still do that? She’s so cute in it. But it might not win because of my annoying giggle.

- My SIL, her hubby and kids drove with my MIL all the way from CA to TX to visit us for Thanksgiving week. They arrived the Saturday before. Next day, we got them up and went to church for first service. We headed home afterwards to prepare and enjoy NM’s 10th birthday party. I’m still getting over that. The boys scrimmaged in the back yard and NM scored a lot of Lego sets. I think there were only two presents that weren’t Legos (one of which was FIFA 2009 for Xbox that we got him). Besides the presents, he had so much fun with his friends and we even got to see two friends of his from last year’s team. One of the neighbors brought over his BB gun and after I tried to shoot it twice, I threw up my hands and told my hubby he has to be there if the gun was being used. I didn’t have to worry. But that thing was the subject of many conversations when the kids left to go home (I chatted with the parents).

2008-11-24 Walk Around Town Lake- Monday after, we all took a walk around Town Lake/Lake Lady Bird trail. The kids—and Sprocket—walked for three miles and no one really complained until we were close to the end of the trail. The fall colors are so bright this year compared to last. I have no idea why that is, but it’s amazingly gorgeous and such a blessing to see. We went home to have lunch and drop off the very tired dog then went to see the state’s capitol building (see pics on Flickr). My BIL enjoyed the many monuments scattered thoughout the grounds. Quite a few of them are related to the Confederacy and their loss in a major conflict. Again, I failed to make it up to the 4th floor of the rotunda, only up to 2nd this time. There was a service going on for a recently deceased attorney general inside of the House chambers, but I did get to see the Senate chambers. Their walls had photos of each of the different sets of senators as well as kids. I never did get who the kids were and why they got to be a part of the senate year book photo.

2008-11-25 Zilker Botanical Garden- Next day, we headed to Zilker Botanical Gardens because the kids wanted to. “What’s Dinoland?” they asked when we passed many signs the day before. It was a collection of life-sized sculptures of what dinos may have looked like, all strewn about the Gardens. Also, they had many different t-rex cut outs that they sent to area elementary schools to decorate. The one you see here had to be the most unusual one. The kids got such a kick out of the whole thing, it was worth it. Sprocket got to come, too :) She was most pleased.

2008-11-26 Sliding- Wednesday, we didn’t do much at all. The kids just hung out and were having so much fun that it was hard to tear them away from it all and have, well, more fun. But we did! We decided to go and enjoy the Texas winter sport of tobogganing. Eh? you wonder. Well, we have hills that have a lot of dead, brown grass and a convenient 45 degree angle. In our garage, we have a long, narrow box of about 2′x2′x6′ and a matching cover (the toboggans) plus miscellaneous empty packing boxes. Have you added two and two? Hehehehe. Suffice it to say, we *all* had a blast. The kids and adults piled into and onto boxes and slid down the hill. Over and over and over. No injuries, saved the emotional security of the dog who was subjected to at least two rides. It would have been more but she learned how to bail in mid-slide which isn’t very safe. The kids will forever remember that as The Best Most Fun Day ever and the hill will be two times as high and as fast in their memory as it actually was. It was that fun (videos on Flickr to prove it).

- Thursday – Thanksgiving. That was nice. In spite of the turkey being five hours late, the stuffing being too soupy and the cranberry jello having too much, well, jello, we had a great (late) meal. I have no photos, my MIL took one of the bird though. The kids just hung out and the adults did, too, helping me and hubby with meal prep and all that. I enjoyed it. Now and again, between checking the temp, crumbling the breadcrumbs, mashing yams, etc., I did take the time to make a mental inventory of what I had to be thankful for and, praise God, I did lose count. He is so good to me. I did my level best (and succeeded) to avoid reading my SIL’s thanksgiving card. Her remark when she wrote it was something like “working in a hospital, I know lots of things to be thankful for.” and so I worried about crying when I read it. It was ok, though, I didn’t cry when I read it the next day, she was kind ;) By the way, we used Alton Brown’s turkey brine and it came out good (and looked good, too). I would probably only add a little more salt and use less canola than we did.

Ok…not so speedy of an update, is it? You’ll just have to forgive me…after all, I was away from blogging for just about a month. I have lots of blogging to make up for it!

Category: Around Town, Family Stuff, Foodie Stuff, God is Great
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