Hmmm...

This past weekend I was contacted by my freshman (and sophmore) college roommate, Lori Kaizawa. I had not been in contact with Lori since we graduated 23 years ago. It was great to hear from her, but also daunting trying to encapsulate the last 23 years of your life in an email. I remembered this blog that I had abandonded earlier in the year and looked it up to give her the link as a way to give her a glimpse into my life now. I started reading some of my previous posts and it struck me how much I loved reading it. I'm so glad I have these everyday things preserved to go back and read any time I want. I went back to my first post in 2006 and read all of them from that year. The kids look so young!! And it wasn't that long ago. It made me want to try to start blogging again. So here goes.

The most recent events of note around here were halloween and the end of kfl football. I have already sent these pictures to Jean but thought I'd post them here for everyone to see.

Halloween night Jackson's football team had their 2nd playoff game at 6:00 p.m. That meant that we couldn't really trick or treat that night...which was not that great for Jensen. So, we sent her with a friend and she had a really great time. It also meant I didn't get many pictures. I took a couple of her at the house before we left...she looked scaaaaarrrry!




The football game did not go the way of the good guys. You can tell by the expression on the boys' faces. It is the end of KFL for most of those boys...next year they move on to middle school football. Coaches were crying, boys were crying, parents were crying. It was quite something to see.



We got home about 8:30 and Jackson got the dregs of the candy that was left on our street. He wasn't much in the mood for trick or treating anyway...

Jordan did dress up this year, as a nerd, and went trick or treating with a few of her friends but I didn't get any pictures of her.

Another interesting halloween weekend has passed...

December '08 part 2

December 18

Jensen and I were invited to a Mother/Daughter cookie exchange. I was struck by how lady-like she looked sitting there eating her snack. It didn't last long before she was up and running wild with the other girls.

December 19


This was the last day of school before winter break and it was class party day. Jordan had a half day at Riverwood so she came up to Shadow Forest with me. She spent a little time at Jensen's party then roamed the school with other Shadow Forest alums...saying hi to former teachers and generally basking in the glory of being middle schoolers.

December 21



The treat for today in the kids' advent calendar was to go ice skating in The Woodlands. They all did awesome! Jensen looks like she's about to fall in the photo but she really did an amazing job! I was impressed with how gung ho and fearless she was although I shouldn't have been. She approached ice skating just like she does roller skating in the drive way...all caution to the wind!

December 22


The kids and I were invited to another cookie exchange at Heather's. It was a blast as usual. I brought those peppermint cookies. Very cute, but very labor intensive. Probably won't make those again. Came home with enough cookies to give to several neighbors plus mail carrier.

December 24

Not sure why I took this picture. Jordan got these converse tennis shoes as an early Christmas present. They arrived a day or so before and she couldn't wait to wear them!

We had a nice, quiet Christmas eve. We had make-your-own pizzas for dinner for the second year in a row and tried to get everyone to bed early. Jim and I made it to bed around midnight only to be woken up at 5:45 a.m. ...

December 25






Merry Christmas!

December 26

Date Night # ? I'm not sure of the number but it's close to 25. We went to Vic & Anthony's steak house downtown. Also celebrated anniversary #18. Delicious meal and a fun night! A great end to a memorable Year of 25 Dates.

December 28

Scrapbook room nearing completion.

December 29

Getting packed up for our trip to Michigan tomorrow.

December 30


Jackson and I enjoying our seats in first class.

December 31
No pictures today but we had a nice new year's eve in Durand with Jean and the kids. Jackson and Jordan made it up 'til past midnight. Jensen tried but fell asleep around 11:00. Shhh...don't tell her. Happy New Year!

End of Thanksgiving Weekend

Since Thanksgiving is all about family, food, and feeling thankful for both, here are a few photos of our day that hopefully express my gratitude for all that I have.

The day before Thanksgiving Jordan helped me make an apple pie. She also made banana bread all on her own from start to finish (I guess that job of mine can now pass down to her!).



Earlier that day, Jensen helped me make sugared pecans that we took to some of our friends and neighbors. Those are a traditionally southern thing that I now love. I didn't have my camera out that early in the morning so I missed the shot of her in her apron...so cute!

In goes the turkey on the big day itself.

The whole feast.

The boys that I love.

And the girls that I love too!

I've lost track of how many of these hand turkeys I've received over the years, but I love each and every one.

I totally skipped over Halloween

The election kind of took over but we did celebrate Halloween and had a great time.

The elementary school kids had early release that day and got out at 11:30. I hosted a mom/kid get-together and rented a moonbouce. We had lunch, a drink or two, and watched the kids play. The weather was absolutely perfect. Everyone went home around 3:00 or 4:00 and by 6:00 we were at another neighbor's house for a cook-out before our two hours of trick or treating. It really was a fun night. I love when Halloween falls on a Friday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

50 store bought valentine's (for Jordan and Jackson's class mates), 18 homemade valentines (for Jensen's classmates), 7 homemade teacher gifts (for all the kids' teachers) filled with pretzel hugs, chocolate hearts, and starbucks gift cards = one happy valentine's day.


Topped off with class parties, little gifts, and dinner together, it was a LOVE-ly day!

Daily December: Days Fourteen and Fifteen

Friday was spent mostly cleaning and getting ready for our Holiday Wine Tasting party that we held on Saturday.



Once we decided to go to Michigan over New Year's and realized we weren't going to be here for parties with neighbors and friends, we decided to host one so we could get together with everyone at least once during the holidays.

My friend Nancy had hosted a party like this a few years ago and everyone had a great time so we decided to do it again. Ten couples attended and each couple had to bring one bottle of wine under $12 and one bottle over $15 in their assigned category (i.e. Merlot, Zinfandel, etc.). I made score cards for each person and throughout the evening we tasted wines and scored them 1-10.



At the end of the night Jim tallied the scores to determine the best bottle under $12, best bottle overall, and worst bottle. We even had prizes for the winners.



In case you're looking for a bottle of wine to serve with your holiday meals the winners are pictured above. The best bottle under $12 was the Castle Rock Pinot Noir. At our local store it was $11.82 but I just found it at World Market for $12.99 (still not a bad price). The best bottle overall was the Cline Ancient Vines Zinfandel. It was around $16 at our local store but was on sale at World Market for $14.99. The bottle voted the worst was the Buena Vista Chardonnay and it was just so bad that I actually think maybe the wine had turned somehow. I actually think I might try this one again just to see if it's really that bad.

Each couple also brought an appetizer so we had tons of great food! We were all trading recipes the next week.

My friend Heather took all the fantastic pictures. I'm always so grateful that she totes her camera everywhere!



Can't wait to do this again!

Thanksgiving Memory

This will not be my "Daily December" post (hope to write another one later today), but I wanted to get this written down.

We celebrated Thanksgiving here in our own home...our first one at home since our fire. We spent the day with our good friends on our street, the Enochses and the Kimberlins. We had a mini progressive...appetizers at Jen's, main dinner at our house, and dessert at Nancy's. It was a fun day. The kids all played and ran together all day long. It's a wonderful feeling to be part of a neighborhood like ours especially on holidays where you have no family near to celebrate with.



Before dinner at our house, Jim pulled out an article from the newspaper and said he wanted to read something to all of us.

On Thanksgiving, families gather together and express gratitude for the bounty in their lives.

But what is family these days? Of course, it's parents, children and siblings--blood realtives. but with American families becoming so mobile, so scattered and so displaced, many people form close family-like attachments to friends, making them siblings by choice, brothers and sisters of life.

Perhaps this year, the prosperity we celebrate at Thanksgiving should not only be for the material riches of our lives but also for the human ones. After all, the bounty of living may not just be the abundance of goods spilling out of the cornucopia of life, but the richness of the relationships we have cultivated and harvested in our lifetime.

When we sit down to our feast of Thanksgiving this year, we should give thanks for that other family, that chosen family--our human harvest of enduring friendships. And they're easy to name, too. They're the ones who made a difference. "No love, no friendhsip," wrote Nobel Prize winner Francois Mauriac, "can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever."

I didn't know Jim was going to read this so I was caught off guard and it brought tears to my eyes. I am so thankful for all my family and friends.

Happy 4th and other stuff

It's been a wet July here in Texas so far. I think I read in the paper that it's rained the last 23 days in a row...yuck. This year, the 4th of July was on a Wednesday...weird to have it in the middle of the week. It was overcast in the a.m. but we decided to go to the Kingwood parade anyway. It started drizzling about halfway through but we were sitting under some trees so we didn't get too wet. The kids don't seem to mind the rain.






We had just planned a cookout with some of our neighbors and luckily we have a porte cochere--a covered area over part of our driveway--on our house (never even heard of this until we moved to Texas but now wouldn't want to live without it). We grilled under there and set up tables to eat. The rain actually held out for most of the evening and the guys were able to set off all the fireworks they had purchased (probably $300 or $400 worth combined!).

On Thursday Jordan had a sleepover with her two good friends on the street, Madison and Kristina. She's been dying to have a sleepover since we moved back into the house but with early morning summer swim practices/meets we didn't have one until now. The girls all braided their hair, watched a movie, ate popcorn, listened to music, talked and stayed up late. Typical sleepover stuff. Luckily, Jackson was asked to spend the night at his friend Austin's house the same night so no little brother around to bug them.



On Friday we had the Kellers over for dinner. They have the distinction of being our first dinner guests since we've moved back in. I've hosted girls' night and some of the neighborhood friends have ended up eating over here after grilling out but this was the first time we've cooked for others since we've been back. It was a fun time!



This week (July 2nd) also marked the two year anniversary of our fire. We are so happy to be back in our house but things are far from over. We're still dealing with the arbitration case against our contractor and our Ford lawsuit hasn't even started yet. Currently our trial date is set for November, but our neighbor's insurance company just intervened in the suit so that will probably mean another delay. We have lost so much financially and emotionally that some days it seems like we will never recover.




On a happier note, this week also marked the first time in two years that we've had kids swimming in our pool. That was a good day! The kids have all grown so much in the past 2 years that our pool suddenly seems really small but at least it's ours and it's up and running.