Future Beautician

This morning while I was getting dressed Mia was sitting at my make-up table in the bathroom. When I walked in she said, "Here's the scissors Mommy, Chop chop" Then she ran out. I turned to see black hair all over the white tile.

Thankfully, it was only her bangs and her hair grows faster than a tallow tree.

Geaux Tigers

It's a Boy's night out for David and two of his Bulldog friends. (Lance- left and Mac-right) Tonight LSU plays Mississippi state. This morning they were all smiles but someone will have lots of humble pie to eat. Let's hope it's not the person in the middle.

Back to School Go the Girls and Boys

Thanks to a new Texas law that schools cannot start until the 4th Monday of the month, we just started school today. I was glad to have the extra summer days. As you can see everyone was all smiles this morning. I got up and got dressed and by 7:00 Kaylee and Zane were completely dressed and were fixing there own breakfast. They were excited. Trent, on the other hand and to be carefully roused from his warm bed.

Today was Trent's first day of Kindergarten. I asked him what his favorite part of the day was and he said "When my teacher left the room to go to the bathrooom and we were all alone" (By the way the restroom is right next door.)

Kaylee started First Grade Spanish Immersion. She has the same teacher Zane had last year. She was very excited and even fixed her own ponytail this morning.

Zane is in 5th and is the Top Dog of the school. He is super excited about this. He was dreading school a little but seemed to have had a great day. (I think another few weeks of couch time would have suited him fine)

Watermelon Festival 2007

We visited Rush Springs, Oklahoma for the annual Watermelon Festival. David's parents were born, raised, and married there before moving to Louisiana. As a kid David traveled to OK every year during festival time. I have a couple of times but this was our first time in 10 years. There were 20+ of us, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandma.

There are a lot of Watermelon farmers in the area and each year the town has a festival in August. There are craft booths, carnival rides, music and at 4 p.m. on Saturday is the Free Watermelon Feed. (Everyone is welcome, provided you haven't passed out from heat exhaustion by that time)
On Sunday after the festival we traveled over to Mt. Scott and the kids had fun exploring. The night before the festival the city hosts a Rodeo. It's a small town and a small Rodeo but still fun to watch. We spent most of the time wishing we had stopped at a bookstore to purchase a "Rodeo for Dummies" book. By the end of each event I think we had all collectivley decided on the rules and scoring. The kids took part in the calf scramble and tried desparatley to pull the ribbon off the calf's ear.

Now what I found very interesting about the Festival,(other than the man with a pet raccon on a leash) is that there is a Watermelon Queen. She was crowned the week before so that she could rule over the festival. We got a local paper to check times for the event and included in the paper was a list of prizes that the Queen was awarded. She was given standard things like a tiara, manicure, outfits, and a HORSE TRAILER. Yes, a Horse Trailer....... and it probably is something very useful for the Watermelon Queen to have.

Prima Ballerina

Today was Mia's first day of Ballet class. She was so cute in her little slippers and leotard. When I told the lady at the dance store that we needed a size 7 she thought I was nuts. I don't think she knew they made them that small. But they fit Mia perfectly.

She had a great time dancing around and getting to do fun things like the balance beam, somersaults and just being "girly"

Sleeping Innocence

When these two are asleep it may be the only time they are both innocent

Phrase you won't see on a fortune cookie

Today is my birthday and tomorrow is Trent's so we decided a celebratory dinner was in order. We let Trent pick the restaurant, knowing full well it would be one of our favorites, Cafe East. A local Chinese buffet, that has soft-serve for dessert(real authenic chinese huh?). Now, Mia is well known here. All the waitresses know her by name and try to get her to speak Mandarin with them. They were astonished one day when she said "Ne-how"(hello) back to one of them.(I didn't tell them she learned that from Dora)

Anyway, we have had some trouble in the past with the amount of care they try to give her. The waitresses would come by and clean her tray, feed her bites of food, glare at me when her mouth needed wiping, etc. We almost decided not to go back there because we couldn't have a decent conversation with all of the "chinese ladies" around, but the food was so good that David devised a plan. We would ask for the table all the way in the front right next to the steam tables. That way the managers would see them all "standing around." His plan has worked for quite a while now. Until tonight.....

The waitress was an older Chinese woman and we remember her well. She was the one who almost sent Zane into a panic attack about 2 years ago. We were all sitting around the table and she was asking us why we wanted another baby? why China? etc. Finally she looked at Zane, smiled, pointed to him and said, "Oh! he could marry her(Mia) and you will have One BIG HAPPY FAMILY" Once we resuscitated Zane we explained to her that would not be happening. She looked a little confused and walked away.

Well tonight, we had "BIG happy family" waiting on us again. She looked at Mia and said "She will be beautiful when grows up" I thought it was a very nice compliment until....she said,"When China girls are all scrunched up as baby they are Ugly, but then get big and will be beautiful" "Your girl was Ugly, but it OK now because she getting big and will be beautiful" Well it took all David had to stay seated. Don't worry he defended her honor very nicely. Not quite sure how much of a tip she got but I bet it wasn't much.

** Please, no posses need to be formed, Mia's dad has this under control**

Hmmm.... What should I do today?

Last Saturday David and I left Nana & Paw Paw's to get back for church on Sunday.(He's teaching a Sunday School class now) Well the kids had not quite gotten their visit out and wanted to stay a little longer. This of course didn't bother me and Nana said she wanted to keep them. So for FOUR days we had the house to ourselves. David had to work so I was left to my own daily agendas. All I can say is Wow! was it quiet around here. I purposefully ate on paper plates and got many take out dinners. We caught up on several movies we wanted to see and I thought I would give a little review here in case anyone is interested,(even if you're not, here they are)
The Guardian - Great movie, 2 thumbs up. Kevin Costner played a coast guard rescue diver. He gets injured and is forced to teach cadets at the academy. don't want to ruin any more for you, but it is worth renting.
One afternoon I went to the actual movie theater - After much debate and angst I saw Evan Almighty. Now, I was very concerned that this would be a purely sac religious movie. I had heard though from another Christian friend that it was really funny. So, I read some on-line Christan reviews, and headed for the theater.(fully prepared to walk out) I was pleasantly surprised and in fact a little encouraged at how good this movie was. There was no vulgar language, crude jokes or making fun of God or Noah. In fact the message was very good.

I also rented (do you see a pattern here?) Miss Potter. It is the dramatization of the life and love story of Beatrix Potter. (You know the one that wrote the Peter Rabbit books). I thought it was a good movie, very clean, even little kids could watch and young girls would probably like the almost Cinderella love story.
Now I did do more than watch movies, I shopped for new bedroom furniture, Painted the master bathroom in one day, returned a few purchases, made a few new purchases, washed the car, and enjoyed myself.
**Disclaimer**I in no way mean for this post to conjure feelings of jealousy(for you) or loathing(for me). It is meant only to give a prime example of what type of grandparents we should be. The kind that help out, often. The kind that recognize that a well-rested mother(&father) is so much better than a severely stressed out one. Thanks Mom and Dad, I enjoyed my 4 days immensely.

See you soon.... Not Goodbye

Here's a picture you don't want to see when driving up to a friend's house..... My friend Debbie and her family are moving to College Station.(tomorrow) sniff, sniff... Debbie is one of the first people I met here and we have become really good friends. Our first meeting was at the neighborhood pool the first summer we were here. Our oldest kids both started Kindergarten the same year. I talked her into carpooling and we've been on the road with each other's kids for the last five years. All of the kids love her. In fact, when we first came home with Mia she would rather have Debbie hold her than me. Mrs. Debbie would drive into the driveway Mia & would run out to the car for her to pick her up. We've had a lot of funny and teary-eyed discussions in the front yard. Diet cokes and theological discussions we've had it all. I'm really going to miss Debbie. She has been a true answer to prayer for me. Zane said "Mom, we're going to have to move" I asked why and he said, "Well, we either need to move to Mrs. Gayla, Valarie, or Darla's neighborhood or you'll need to make a new friend" I think he realizes how important a REAL friend is. Thankfully the drive to see each other is only about 2.5 hours.

Here I am with Debbie after a tearful discussion, thankfully the packers had not put away the kleenex yet.