Congratulations, Charlie!!!

Another big event for our family this month was that Charlie made both his First Communion and Confirmation this month (ok, last month, I realize it's already May!!) The Diocese of Phoenix is changing things to reflect some pre-Vatican II practices of combining these two sacraments and giving them earlier. Some say its because they recognize "8" as the age of reason. Ha, whoever says this, doesn't have a 8 year old. I'm not sure Charlie truly appreciates what has happened. After all, he still can't sit still in Mass. This child can play video games without a bathroom break for upwards of 4 hours, but can't give one hour to stillness and quiet listening. And when asked to pick his Confirmation name, he chose Patrick..."because he likes the color green and he's always wanted to know more about the shamrock". Ask a kid, you get a kid's answer. But he did do all the projects and preparation, and willingly I might add. As his service project, he played violin at Christmas mass and regularly hands out programs before Mass. He loves greeting people, though he is still a little too shy to actually say "Good Morning".

There was one big Mass on a Saturday morning. The sanctuary was packed and overflowing as 60+ kids received these two sacraments. We didn't actually have the Bishop, but his helper Fr. Felt, who gave a very nice homily to the kids. Fr. Scott (our pastor) told me later that Charlie was one of the very few who remembered the proper responses for Confirmation. I gave credit to Aunt Eileen who was his sponsor, and who prompted him as we waited in line to make sure he did his thing right. Ginny and her two little ones attended mass with us. Fortunately, Eileen was able to come without her brood since that helped distribute the adults a little better among the kids who quickly got bored and frustrated with being trapped in church. Next year, I think I'll offer to open a nursery for the families. Charlie's neighbor friend, Sammy, came with us. It's hard to tell what she thought of all the pomp and circumstance (albeit it noisy and chaotic) of our Mass as she attends a Evangelical Christian church down the road. I do think she enjoyed being there for Charlie and what was clearly an important moment. It was a really beautiful service, and I couldn't help but be teary-eyed as my first born reached yet another milestone.





As Eileen stood up for Charlie, Monica stood up for Jimmy, one of Charlie's best friends from Kindergarten. Their parents led us to St. Bridget way back when and even though the boys no longer go to school together (Jimmy still goes to Queen of Peace), they still get together regularly. They just get each other.







After mass, there was a nice reception with cake and then we took Charlie to his favorite Chinese buffet resteraunt. It was a nice break from the usual Saturday lunch at the Golden Arches. This is a picture of Tony trying to feed Lucy some octopus!!!

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday Alexander

This is a full month, so I'm combining some of the posts. Easter was a busy week for us since I played nearly every night at church. The choir had worked really hard, but it really paid off in the Masses. On the mornings of both Holy Thursday and Good Friday, I played Morning prayer services. I also played the masses both nights. Then there was the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening. It's my favorite Mass of the year, and I love how they do it at St. Bridget's. There is tons of music intertwined with the readings, lots of candles; it's very high liturgy and extremely fulfilling. But it also lasts for about three hours, so I didn't get home until close to 11. Then, after meeting with the Easter Bunny, I crawled into bed for a few hours before I had to get up and be at church by 5 to prepare for the Sunrise Service. That was complicated by the fact that rain the previous day had prevented us from getting everything set up the night before. So we had to wipe dry the seats, get everything plugged up and running. The 6:00 mass was pretty much our dress rehearsal for the later Masses. But it was a beautiful day outside, very sunny, but not too hot. In fact, I was wearing my leather jacket at the early mass (I was ticked since I had invested in a new Easter dress), but managed a sunburn at the later masses. We had a hummingbird present and hanging about the alter at all three masses, it was gorgeous. Tony brought all the kids (which he had to dress and feed since I left before they got up) to the last mass of the morning. Not only was he on time, he was early, I was so proud. And the kids looked great too. He forgot the camera, so we don't have proof, but you can take my word for it. We took a few pics once we got home.

The kids had a big weekend too. On Saturday, Tony took them to the YMCA Easter Egg hunt where Florence got to chase down her first eggs. We then all met up for lunch at Village Inn where the Easter Bunny was hanging out giving out balloon hats/animals. What a fun and special weekend for them. This is a poloroid they took for us while we were there.

That afternoon, we had planned on celebrating Alexander's birthday since the three families (Bigleys and Dawsons) were going to be together anyway. Knowing that I was going to be exhausted from working, and having visited Enchanted Island in Encanto park during spring break, we decided to hold his party there. Enchanted Island is an amusement park for the younger set - according to their website, they cater to the 1-10 year olds (Hey! That's us!), but really, it's more for the 1-6. Lucy and Charlie were a little bored, but they had a great attitude for the party. These guys did EVERYTHING for us. They did let us bring cake (they would've provided, but since it's not personal, they encourage people to bring their own), but they gave us ice cream, a table in the shade, a host to make sure we had everything we needed, drinks, food, balloons, a tshirt for Alex...and all for a reasonable amount of money, especially when you consider how much fun the kids had on the rides and how I didn't have to clean up either before or after the party. Alexander loved his Power Rangers party, though he got so many Spiderman gifts, he then adopted Spiderman as his favorite superhero of the day.

He did get to have a home party as well. More presents, more celebration of Alex. Here he is with our neighbor friends. And here he is with Florence planting flowers, one of his favorite activities.

Happy Birthday to Me

I managed in true childlike style to have my birthday last the whole month. I figured I deserved it. After all, I turned 40 this year. Most people shy away from celebrating this particular milestone, but I figured, I have three degrees, a good marriage, four kids, and we own our house (sort of), so it's not like I'm 40 and still trying to figure out what I want to do. I've achieved alot, with the grace of God, of course, I do recognize that while I've worked hard, I've been truly blessed with everything we have.

April 1, my actual birthday, started out like any other day. I was to work in Lucy's classroom, teach piano in the afternoon, take Charlie to a rehearsal at church, and then Tony and I were joining Ginny and Eileen and their husbands for dinner that evening. While I was all about the dinner out as adults, I was really saving my birthday celebration for later in the month. More on that later. Anyhow, around 7:30 that morning, Ginny shows up with donuts for breakfast. The funny part was how she had them carried in by my parents who had flown in from DC to surprise me. I was so tickled. She had also, with some help from my neighbor, cancelled my working in the classroom and arranged with my sister to cancel lessons for the afternoon. So while I couldn't get out of the church rehearsal, I was able to spontaneously have a whole day "off". We hung out, ate too much sugar (doughnuts and a dirt cake the little boys made), had a beer in the middle of the day with lunch, napped and played with the little kids left at home (the older two sadly left for school at the normal time.) It was glorious. And that evening, the eight of us went to my favorite resteraunt, Red, White and Brew for dinner. I love that place, but somehow only manage to make it there for my birthday. Oh, well, keeps it special. It was a wonderful day. It was especially amazing how mom and dad arrived on Sunday, everyone except me knew, including my neighbor, and somehow, they still managed to surprise me Wednesday morning. In hindsight, I saw the signs...Tony cleaning up, Eileen not calling me back the evening before (Ok, that actually happens quite a bit), Ginny making my hair appointment so it didn't interrupt the day...I'm glad I'm not so "mature" I can ruin a surprise by being suspicious.

Because I was turning 40, I asked my friend and neighbor Tricia to throw me a party. I love parties, but I tend to be the thrower, not the receiver. I figured I deserved one for this milestone. I postponed it until the end of April since my birthday fell during Lent this year. When you're Catholic, and most of your friends are Catholic, a party on a Friday night during Lent can be a little less than you're looking for in a party. So we waited until after Easter.

Tricia got my sisters involved. As part of my gift, Ginny, Eileen, my brother John and my parents through money into the pot to help pay for it. This allowed us to cater the party instead of making all the food ourselves. We went with Joe's Real BBQ from Gilbert, AZ. Having moved here from Alabama, Tony and I have been looking for good BBQ. Well, we hadn't been to this place before, but now it's my new favorite. We, of course, ordered too much food, but we kinda did it on purpose so we would have leftovers. Which we did, for a week, and I still have some in the freezer. We did pies instead of cake, because that's what I prefer, and Hey, it's MY birthday. I got my favorite, Lemon Meringue as well as a few others. We also had veggies and fruit and chips and enough beer, wine and vodka lemonade to serve the neighborhood. I'm going to have to throw another party just to get rid of leftovers! The most difficult thing to get rid of was the fruit/veggies. After all, the alcohol will keep, the meat will freeze, the desserts disappeared quickly (ha!). But fruits/veggies have to be eaten once they're cut, and eaten quickly. We did pretty well with the watermelon, grapes, and cantalope, but I was the only one who would eat the celery, and I'm afraid the peppers didn't make it.

Here is a picture of my sisters, Ginny, Eileen and Susannah with my friend and neighbor Tricia and her husband Ray. I had spent weeks preparing the backyard, overseeding the lawn, watering the heck out of it, throwing away toys that had been beaten to death by the sun and planting flowers with Alex. Here he is with some of his handiwork. I also revived the fountain in the front with a new pump/plug, hoping that everyone would ooh and ahh over the fountain and not notice that the grass in the front was dead, and my goodness the house needs painting! We rented tables and chairs for the back patio/yard and covered them with purple tablecloths. In the planning stages, we had messed around with the idea of an 80s theme, but in the end, decided to spend money on food/beverage instead of decorations and took advantage of post-Easter sales to decorate in Spring pastels. My neighbor's husband, Ray, who's in construction borrowed some lights from his work that we strung along the back fence all the way around so that the backyard once it got dark, was lit up nicely. It was truly beautiful, especially once my friends started arriving. My sister Susannah was able to fly out and join us, so it truly felt like a special occasion. Here is a picture of some church friends - Dan and Sue I know through Religious Education, Andy, his wife DeAnn, and Nancy I know through choir.

The best part of the party was that some friends of mine in a band volunteered to play for the occasion. They are some friends from church, including my old music director Jaime and his wife Kari, my friends Leon and Ed from church and Phil that I've only met once or twice. They play regularly at weddings, etc., but wanted a chance to get together just for fun, so we were blessed to have them come and grace us with their covers of pop music. It was amazing. They played while everyone ate, and after dinner, they played while everyone danced. It's so nice to see that giant concrete pad in the backyard get some good use. Bottom line, it was a great party. I really felt loved, from the attention showed me that night, to the help from my sisters and friends preparing for it. It was exactly what I wanted, and even better than I could've imagined. Happy birthday to me!

Here's a few extra pictures from the day after. Susannah with Lucy out in the backyard (Lucy had gone to a glam party for a friend's birthday.) Here she is with Florence, who took to her like a hen on a junebug. And here is Florence enjoying the balloons who may have lost their "float" but not their ability to entertain!

Happy Cranioversary Florence

Florence had her one year check up this month with her neurosurgeon. She passed with flying colors of course. The doctors are going to watch one area of her forehead carefully to see if it continues to smooth out, but are otherwise pleased with her progress. They wouldn't do anything until she was 5 anyway, but I figure unless it's something seriously visable, we won't subject her to any more surgeries. Her scar is barely visable, and once she has some hair, it's not likely to show at all, I hope. It's hard to imagine that a year has already passed. Just one year ago, I was thinking of running away with her rather than allow them to take her from me. But she is doing so well, we have no regrets. Here she is with sister Lucy in their cutie matching sweaters.

Physically, she does just about everything the older kids do. She climbs on the couches, the outside playset (she bats my hands away when I try to help) and has even figured out how to drag the kid chairs over so she can reach things. Here she is on a playslide out in the backyard.

She talks all the time. You can't understand her, but it's very conversational and she is CLEARLY trying to communicate something to you. Most often in the shape of a question. She throws a mean tantrum when she doesn't get her way. I'm trying to stay on top of these. She's learned how to bite and scratch, and will even bite herself to make a point.

She loves balloons, and balls and baby dolls. She LOVES music. Very often I will catch her in with Charlie while he is practicing his violin with the taped accompaniment, just dancing and twirling and bouncing. It's adorable. I have videotape, I just have to figure out how to get it on here.

It's been an incredibly busy month with my birthday (the big 4-0), Alex's 4th birthday, Easter, and Charlie's first Communion. Stay tuned - I'm hoping to update and post pictures of all of them.

Almost 40....

I'm a terrible blogger. I guess I keep waiting until I have some time to sit down and be creative. Pretty much, never. I finally finished a huge recital yesterday. Tuba. Somehow I've become the go to person for the low brass accompaniment in this town. You know what they say, though: "Find something no one else wants to do...." Anyhow, the recital went really well. This was a Masters Recital over at ASU. Previously, I've only done competitions and juries (well, one recital) at Mesa Community College, so this was like big leagues for me. I got called because no one else would play this piece. Truthfully, when I agreed to it, I thought I had already played it. Stupid, stupid...never agree to music over the phone, and never quote a price until you know what you're doing. I learn something new everytime. I did work really hard on it, and I feel like my chops returned, but since it's been so long since my days of 2-3 recitals a week, my nerves are not quite what they used to be. More of a wet pasta than the steel of a few years back. But it went well, I got many compliments, and already one of the teachers from MCC wants me to help him make a tape. Doors are opening...

Back in February, I threw a Mardi Gras Party for my MOMS group. This set off a string of Kings Cakes. King cake is actually a bread, so I got some good use out of my bread machine. I even hid the baby inside. I also found that it is such a southern tradition that even my friend from Georgia didn't know what it was. It's primarily a New Orleans thing, but since Mobile claims Mardi Gras as well, we knew about it in Alabama.

The kids are doing well. We're managing to fend off most of the winter illnesses. Except for a stupid stomach bug that keeps making the rounds in various extremes. Charlie's my carrier. He gave it to me and I was so bad off Tony had to take off work. Now Charlie's got it again, though it seems more mild. But after visiting my friend in the hospital with her baby who has RSV and pneumonia, I'll take our little "crappy" illnesses.

Charlie is doing very well in violin. He's getting good praise in orchestra too.He's so diligent about his practicing, and I love to hear him all the time. He's been funny about listening to me practice - "Why do you keep playing that one part over and over?" He usually just plays everything through and calls himself finished. He is doing well in karate as well. He got his green belt a few weeks back and even one two medals (2nd place) in a tournament last weekend. I was proud of him. I've started letting him walk to school by himself on occasion. He likes to play wall-ball with some buddies before school, so if he does all his chores and practice, I'll let him go a little bit early. Of course he has to pass the quiz before I let him out the door: "Do we talk to strangers? What if someone is looking for a puppy? What if they offer candy" I try to get creative, but he knows the right answers. I don't worry too much since it's only down the block and I'm ususally 4 minutes behind him. But I did cry that first day, but Tony said it was ok, he was old enough.

Lucy has been cleared by her doctor for all activities she wants after her broken arm incident. She is still lacking just a bit of flexibility in her elbow. Her Dr explained this is because her arm bone, in healing, filled in a divit that is naturally there to allow the arm to fully bend/extend. As she grows, the divit will return. Isn't that interesting?! It's this same divit that makes that area a common break in kids. Lucy has also turned 7 in the last few weeks (ha, month). She had a little birthday party with all her little girlfriends. They came over for "tea" and an afternoon of glamour with makeup, hairstyling, and fingernail polish. It was hysterical to see all these girlie girls together. Her favorite gift was from her daddy....a geniune ipod - yes, an older model bought off of Craigslist, but one with a screen that plays movies and all the Soundtracks to High School Musical movies.

Alexander is doing Kindermusik again. It's been a slow start, but now he actually goes to class with a few other kids without me. Florence and I hang out in the lobby until he's finished. It's so big boy of him. He's been so patient with me as I was preparing for that recital. He about knows every movie we own by heart, poor neglected thing. I would try and have a few outings. Here we are feeding the ducks at a nearby pond. Florence loved this to, but she seemed determined to find her way into the pond, so it wasn't as nice for me....much chasing and screaming....from both of us.

Florence is approaching her one year "cranioversary". It's hard to imagine that this time last year, I was afraid to put her down because I wanted to hold her as much as possible. And now, she is such a stinker, and so independant. She pulls chairs over to reach things, she is starting to say new words everyday, she knows many of her body parts, and OH, she loves to dance. She can't hear music without bouncing and twirling. Here's a pic of her getting ready for bath...I used a far away one so it's not obscene, but if you look over her shoulder, there's her papoo hanging from her dress. She's a funny girl. She loves making people laugh, and I can't help it when I watch her tiny dimpled butt run around the house.

So there we are. You probably won't hear from me again until after Easter since I'll be at church everyday that week. But by then I'll have made it over the hill. I'm planning on dinner with Ginny and Eileen and their husbands (and mine of course) that night, but I'm saving my big party for after Easter. Who wants to have a party when everyone's given up desserts, alcohol, etc.? I gave up dessert....the pounds should've been falling off of me as I usually have something every day. But no. I'm the only person who can have a 48 hour stomach bug and still not lose any weight. I give up!

Happy New Year and a little bit....

January 28, 2009

Dear all,

I’ve been wanting to write a letter updating everyone for a while, but time is just not my friend. As it is, it’s almost February, some of my decorations are still sitting out, even if they’re not “displayed”. But since Dad’s letter writing of Christmas just came, ok, several days ago, I felt inspired again to write. My inspiration this morning comes from a book I’m reading called “The Hour I first believed” in which there are extremely detailed letters of a young girls’ visit to Mark Twain’s house. I realize that I’m reading fiction, but the amount of detail that went into that letter was impressing and amazing. It had its own chapter and contained so many elaborate details of venue, environment, food and dress, and it embarrasses me to think I will try and include enough info to be informative and yet, small enough not to clog up everyone’s email….


We had an extremely busy Christmas Eve. As usual, I played a great deal at church. I had told Mark (our director) that I would play every single mass on Christmas Eve if it meant I didn’t have to show up Christmas morning. He had already asked me and the kids to come to the 4:00 Children’s Liturgy, since he is new to this job and doesn’t have the Catholic School connection that Jaime had, he was short on kids for that service. We normally have this one outside, but for once, Phoenix weather didn’t comply and we had to plan to put our masses back inside. This meant splitting them in half since our sanctuary is not prepared to handle everyone who only comes to mass twice a year. I was glad to help, but I was disappointed that Charlie and Lucy’s first year in the children’s choir would be without me there to witness it. As it turned out, they delayed the start of the second mass so that people had to time to wander in to church, not find a seat there and cross back to the hall. That meant I got to accompany Charlie as he played “O Come Little Children” on the violin as prelude music. I was so proud I thought I was going to burst – he, of course, was really laid back about it, no big deal. Lucy was also feeling vulnerable because of her arm, so she accompanied me to the other service and sat next to me at the piano and sang. By the time I got home at 2:00 after midnight mass, Christmas was laid out, Santa had come and gone and everyone was asleep in bed.


But Christmas day was great – nowhere to be, no specific time to finish, no work – all in all, a great day. I joke that Tony and I did our part to keep the economy afloat. With all our talk of cutting back, including our substitution of ornament making and cookie baking with our friends and neighbors in lieu of exchanging gifts, the kids still had tons of gifts under the tree. I desperately tried to stay away from video games as the gift of choice, but Tony did find a creative way to give the gift of electronics: two sets of bongo drums and the video game that accompanies them. In this game, Charlie and Alex (or sometimes my neighbor Tricia,) compete to properly accompany a song on the video game by tapping the correct drum at the correct time according to a series of colored circles flashing on the screen. It’s fun, if not a little tiring, and certainly noisy. Even Florence likes to get in there and dance if there’s not a drum available for her. The boys also got some outside toys – a pogo stick for Charlie, and a “big boy” scooter for Alex. I have to say the pogo stick hasn’t gotten that much use, but a lot of that is my fear from more broken bones after Lucy’s accident. Lucy’s primary gifts were extremely girly – a Barbie head for her to fix hair, a kit for braiding, crimping, and beading extensions that you would then clip into hair, and her favorite, a pretend espresso machine so that she can serve coffee/hot chocolate to all her friends and family. The hair toys are sitting quietly waiting for her to get her cast off so that she can have both hands available, but she and Alex play “Starbucks” nearly every day. Florence didn’t care much about opening presents, but she did get a few things she likes to play with – her own cell phone and this magnet play set for the fridge that talks to her and makes animal sounds. I envisioned her playing happily with this while I prepared dinner in the evening, but mostly I just keep retrieving the parts out from under my feet and shutting down the stupid Old MacDonald song. My big gift was an I-Pod Touch. Tony had bought me, several years ago, a really nice 2G MP3 player that did music, photos, videos, etc. I enjoyed it and got great use out of it as Alex watched movies on it during my many OB visits when pregnant with Florence. Well, I helped my neighbor research ipods for her daughter’s birthday and was surprised by how they’d come down in price, so I asked for one for Christmas (8G, please). Well, I had given up since he told me he spent my ipod money on my driving school course I had to take to keep a ticket off our car insurance (you can’t pass even a street sweeper in a school zone!). He told me I couldn’t just go hot-rodding around town (16 mph in a minivan) without consequences. But he surprised me with the Ipod Touch (16G, yay!) and it can do everything – even check my email and get on the internet as long as I’m near a wi-fi. It’s so cool. In fact, it’s so cool, he bought himself one for his birthday…32G of course, because his has to be bigger and better. That, and he got a good deal on Craigslist.


Charlie has gotten to join the orchestra at his school this semester. It’s not exactly what I imagined for him – a place to make music with his peers and make new friends who had something in common besides wall ball and video games – pretty much, we get there at 7:30 in the a.m., I help the teacher tune everyone up and by the time he finished roll call, it’s 7:45 and they have 15 minutes before he dismisses them to class. Knowing this, it’s not surprising that he figured after only 6 months of private lessons, Charlie would belong at least in the intermediate class if not the advanced. He also continues with his karate twice a week. In school he is doing very well, except for handwriting. I waver back and forth about how important this is to me. On the one hand, every genius has notoriously bad handwriting; on the other, sometimes I don’t even grade his homework because I can’t tell what it says!


Lucy’s broken arm has hardly slowed her down. I have to keep reminding her that even though she feels better, running and monkey bars are out of the question. We took a hike on New Year’s Day and she had no trouble making it to the top of Hayden’s Butte despite the fact that I kept fussing at her to slow down and be careful. And despite the fact that I threatened her about the playground after we found sand in her first cast, she still comes home covered in it. She looks cute running around in her hot pink glittery cast, and it’s going to seem weird to see her without it after we get it off next week. Gosh, time has flown. We’ll still have to see how long it will be before she can return to normal activities, but I know gymnastics is off the table at least until the fall. Her birthday is coming up and despite the fact that she made out like a bandit at Christmas, it hasn’t stopped the begging for birthday plans. She lost one of her front teeth. It has really changed her face.


Alexander thinks that because Joe Leo has turned 4, that he must now be 4. After all, they were always the same age, right? He wonders why he hasn’t had a birthday party. But if we try and explain it’s later, he still asks, “you mean, right now?” – he just isn’t getting the whole calendar thing. He loves his scooter he got for Christmas and he is also getting good at driving the jeep (even with Florence buckled in) and he is also learning to ride Charlie’s old bike. It does have training wheels, but they are so off-kilter that half the time they don’t touch the ground because he doesn’t like how the leaning feels when they are. I figure if I get him outside everyday, I could definitely take them off by this summer. I think Lucy was only 4 ½ when she did it. He and I are still going to Kindermusik classes. It’s a lot of motion and dancing and rhythm repetition and playing on instruments. The only part I don’t like is the CDs that were part of our kit. Two CDs full of songs, some of which are ok, but most of which are sung by “trained” children who sound so unnatural, it’s creepy. There’s also all the synthesized music they attempted to make sound like real instruments, down to how they record several string instruments, making them just slightly out of tune with each other. And the sound effects…well, don’t get me started.


Florence finally started walking on Christmas day. We had seen the signs it was coming. She would let go of things here and there and take a few steps. Then that day, she just quit crawling. And when she’d fall, she’d get right back up. We were so happy. Of course, the few bonks she got were right on her forehead where her surgery was. But now she is pretty steady, learning to navigate stairs here and there where she meets them – even treating the step off the patio and the seams from grass to driveway as a step, getting down on all fours and putting one foot at a time on the new level. She loves to do what the other kids are doing, which drives them crazy. I’m constantly being asked to remove Florence from whatever blocks, legos, or games they are playing. Her favorite toy, besides Charlie, of course, is a pretend cell phone. And from the moment she learned to walk, she has paced the kitchen with the phone to her ear chattering away. She babbles all the time now. Other than Uh-oh, she still doesn’t really have discernible words, but her babble is extremely conversational with ups and downs, pointing and pauses so you can respond. It’s really amazing. She’s also really stubborn and totally understands the word no. She can throw a big time fit, but she’s still easily distractible, thank goodness. She also is currently healthy for the first time since Thanksgiving – it has really improved her nighttime sleeping – she goes from about 7 until about 4:30, when she’ll wake up to eat and then go back to bed. I finally put away the little crib in my room. She enjoys going to the nursery during church time and pretty much eats anything we give her. Tony and I are beginning to see the light at the end of the baby tunnel.


By now, you all know about Tony’s new car. The accident in early January totaled the Sentra, which wasn’t difficult given it had 160,000 miles and was 11 years old. The thing that put its value where it was were the new tires and the nice stereo I installed for his birthday last year. So USAA is “buying” it from us and we bought a really nice, almost new, Civic Hybrid. Tony’s first choice was something cool and fun, but after doing a little research, the MVD convinced him that if he bought a used car that already had an alternative fuel tag, they would transfer it to him so he could use the HOV lane to get to work. Well, in true government fashion, after being reassured by no less than 5 people that it would work out, when he went to do it, they wouldn’t let him. I expected him to turn around and trade it in for a VW Bug convertible he had his eye on, but he’s keeping it. We’re hoping that perhaps our new governor (because, as you know, Napolitano defected to DC) will find a way to expand the program or make it work for us. I even wrote her a letter. It’ll no doubt get lost in the shuffle with all the letters she is receiving on planned cuts to education funding, but I had to try. Maybe she’ll be happy to take on something she can actually solve to someone’s satisfaction. But in the meantime, we’ll have to be happy with our financial savings in gas mileage, as we watch gas prices climb back up. That and the fact that Tony is no longer commuting in a car destined to break down.


My projects lately included putting together a photo album for Tony’s birthday. I collected all the “professional” pictures in one album from our history as a family. It was so much fun to see how the kids have grown and to see how much they favor – those Horn genes run deep, I tell you. Alex kept looking at pictures of Charlie and wondering if that was him. I also dug up all our Christmas letters, so it was neat to read the highlights of each year too. My other projects include getting the house ready to host two gatherings this week. Tony and I will host our bi-monthly Marriage Encounter meeting on Tuesday and I will host a Mardi Gras theme party for my MOMS group on Friday. I’ve put pressure on myself to do extra dusting and cleaning, hanging curtains over the kids toy clutter “closet”, organize pictures that didn’t make it into the album into frames, put batteries in the clocks that are dead…you know, the stuff that doesn’t really matter if you have good food and plenty of wine. I’ve also been working in the yard. We planted winter grass in the front and now I’m trying to keep it from dying. I always love getting the yard together, but I have the worst time “maintaining” it. I planted flowers in the beds out back, but they died during the one freeze we had in January. There’s the back lawn which I deliberately allowed to go dormant for the winter; however, the weeds don’t know the meaning of the word dormant. They creep underneath the alley wall and are thriving. Even the weed killer I put down doesn’t seem to be helping. I should just put down Astroturf and plant fake flowers and be done with it.

Christmas loometh

I can't believe it's December already. This year has just flown by.

Florence had her one year old checkup today. She "passed" with flying colors, though, bless her heart, she is still too small to face forward. She only weighed 18 1/2 pounds. It's not for lack of eating - she's been pigging out and especially enjoying the whole milk we're giving her now. Oh well, we are reluctant to give up the little carrier seat anyway. It's so convenient, especially when she falls asleep in the car.

We are trying to get ready for Christmas. I got some shopping done, but there's still so much to do. We don't even have our tree up yet. I keep telling the kids I am not decorating a dirty house, but that doesn't seem to inspire them to help me clean. We're all so busy between daily chores and committments that we can't seem to find time to do anything extra. Hopefully this weekend will find us decked in green and red and at least a few twinkle lights.