Houston Aquarium

I started to include this in the Houston post from yesterday, but realized that it just really needed its own space.  I LOVE aquariums and water and fish.  I'm a Pisces.  I'm from the ocean...well, not actually FROM the ocean, but you know what I mean...Hawaii, California...those are my childhood and that's what I gravitate to.  It's innate that I'm drawn to water.  So the fact that i thoroughly enjoyed this part of the trip shouldn't be a surprise.

It's way too hard to pick out the best parts of the Aquarium because I loved them all...

 very cool stingray petting pool...they were surprisingly delicate...like thin, slimy...um...pancakes? no CREPES!  thin, rubbery, slimy crepes!!

   

 (not an actual tiger)

 (an actual tiger...in the aquarium???)

 no children or tigers were hurt in the taking of these pictures...

I actually DO have a favorite part...the GIFT SHOP...

a wall of stuffed animals...

 and these AWESOME SQUID HATS!!!

AND...guess who was waiting outside the Gift Shop...SANTA!!!

 

 Look how cute she is talking to Santa like she's 5 years old again...

do you know what she asked for?  A Black Ford F350!!

  And Santa didn't tell me, but I'm pretty sure Mack is asking for some Star Wars Lego thing.

We all had an amazing morning at the Houston Aquarium before touring the rest of downtown Houston and heading over to the library for Spell Girl's thing.  I'm so glad we could incorporate a little water and some fish into our weekend.  Because everything is better with water and fish.  :)

Houston

If someone had told me a year ago, that I would eventually have a blog post called Stuff I Love...HOUSTON, I would never have believed them.   My parents lived in Houston for several years when I was in high school and college and then retired to a Houston suburb later in life, and I didn't love it then.   The humidity, the concrete freeways, the subdivisions and strip malls were not at all appealing when I was younger.  (They're still not.)  And I remember saying on more than one occasion after I left this state, that I would NEVER want to live here again.  

Things change...and we've discovered that not all of Texas is like Houston.  


This weekend, we had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Houston for Spell Girl's latest accomplishment.  I still don't love Houston that much, but we had such a great time over the weekend and we did so many fun things, that I sort of have to credit the whole city for the fantastic and memorable experience.  We spent most of our time downtown and LOVED it.  

 Dinner Friday night at Hard Rock HOUSTON

 I have no idea what's up with June.  That's her face of the week...ugh...11 yr olds!

After dinner, we walked over to the County Courthouse for the Annual Christmas Tree Lighting...

That's Ruben Studdard from American Idol...very cool

They did a huge fireworks show when they lit the Christmas tree...amazing!

On Saturday morning, we went to the Houston Aquarium (it had to be it's own post), and did a little sight seeing...

 Theatre District...we couldn't resist getting a picture of Spell Girl with that giant bass

 I love that there is ART everywhere in downtown Houston.

 The tree from Friday night

I am humbled and happy to admit that there are beautiful things about this place that I had written off years ago.  I'm so glad we had the chance to go back there and find them.  

Published

Last spring, Spell Girl's teacher suggested that she enter a writing contest sponsored by the Read3Zero Foundation.  They wanted short stories submitted for a compilation book to be published later in the year.  

Spell Girl is a prolific writer.  She has scribbles on every blank piece of paper she can find.  She writes something every single day...and if she doesn't we ALL feel the effects.  In her free time she finds obscure words in the dictionary and figures out ways to use them throughout the week.  (This week's word is BOMBARDED.)  She develops characters for fun.  She has about ten unfinished novels in the works right now.  Even while she's sleeping, she dreams about conflict resolution and storylines.  She is uniquely gifted, and apparently her teacher recognized that, too.

So, in March of this year, Spell Girl finished a story she had been working on called Cursed in the Labyrinth and submitted it for the contest.  Two months later, in May, we received an email saying that she was a finalist!  Another month later, between Girls Camp and a trip to Utah, she received the email saying that she was one of the handful of kids whose stories were going to be PUBLISHED!  (...in an actual BOOK!)  It turns out, not only was she one of the authors in the book, she was also one of the STAR AUTHORS, which meant hers was one of six of the best stories they received.  (I have to agree.)

This weekend we were invited to go to Houston for her official Book Signing at the Houston Public Library.  What an amazing weekend!  There was a red carpet, cake, balloons, gift bags, and a table for all the authors to sign books for their adoring fans.  The Star Authors were also invited to read excerpts from their stories.  It is not often that Spell Girl is in the limelight.  She almost always finds ways to slip out of it so that her more outgoing sisters can have their turn.  It was great to all be together as a family to support Spell Girl in accomplishing something that is so meaningful to her.  We are so proud of her!

 Cursed in the Labyrinth p. 156

 children's author, Melissa Williams

 Spell Girl reading an excerpt from her story

Spell Girl's book is available on Amazon in case you're interested.  :)

http://www.amazon.com/Write-Short-Stories-Kids-Vol/dp/0981805477/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323275115&sr=8-1-spell









 

Baby Sofia

Last night, our sweet friends, Jacob and Natasha had their second baby.  TCD and I went to the hospital today after school to see her.  She is so beautiful and perfect.

  Baby Sofia's big brother, Giovanny

 

It was so much fun to hold that sweet baby and to remember how little they are when they're born.  We're so excited that she's finally here and that we'll have the chance to get to know her.  I think we're in love with her already, though.   

Pie Making

This week, since the church building was unavailable, all the youth activities were held off site (and that means the counselor's house.) 

A few weeks ago when we were planning our upcoming activities, the Beehive Presidency decided that they would like to learn how to make pies.  Since I now own a food processor, that turned out to be perfectly timed.  I invited all 7 of my Beehives over to my house tonight.  (June was also here and loved hanging out with the older girls and helping.)  When we originally planned this activity, I didn't realize that the Scout Master had already invited all eight of his Deacons to come to our house for their activity, too.  If you include the 4 youth leaders and one Bishopric member, we definitely had a full house!  The boys stayed upstairs, though, and the girls all stayed in the kitchen.  

 
After an hour and a half, every surface of my kitchen was covered in flour and so were most of the girls.  But we produced six pies, a bunch of little cinnamon sugar crispy things, and a huge bowl of delicious REAL whipped cream.  I'm not sure that they mastered the art of pie making, but they did learn how to measure accurately, use a food processor, roll pastry dough, the difference between butter and shortening, and that Cool Whip and whipped cream are two totally different things.  I'm sure those things will come around again sometime in their lives.  In the meantime, we all had a great night...even with a bunch of boys upstairs.  :)

I'm so grateful to be able to work and play with these girls on a regular basis.  They are energetic and smart and delightful to be around.  I love this calling!








 

Home Lunches

Just before the end of the last school year, we discovered that our elementary school kids didn't really like the school lunches they had been purchasing everyday.  They were mostly just eating the sides and throwing away the rest.  (great...) 

For the remaining few weeks of school, we decided to switch exclusively to home lunches.  The kids selected the sandwich/fruit/chip combination of their dreams, and I went to Kroger to restock the pantry and to make my grocery budget accommodate one more meal during the day.  It was a huge success.


In August of this year, we added "new lunch bags" to our vast list of school supplies.  Each of the kids picked a new, fun lunch bag so they would be excited about eating lunch everyday.  And I went back to the old lunch menu from the end of last year because if they loved it in May, they should love it in August, right?  Apparently sometime over the summer, Mack decided that turkey and cheese sandwiches weren't really working for him anymore.  Again, this was information that took awhile to uncover.  Why don't they just speak up when they're not  happy?  After a few unsatisfying lunch experiences and several weeks of begging, Mack went back to school lunches.  I added enough money to his lunch account to last for at least 2 weeks and sent him happily off to school.  


One week later, I got a reminder notification email from the school saying that Mack's account was almost out of money.  (???)  How was that possible when I had put more than enough money in there to last for at least two weeks?  Through the beauty of the school's internet lunch account system, I was able to get onto Mack's itemized report and find that he was purchasing not just one, but TWO lunches everyday.  I wondered if maybe there was some computer error or if he was donating lunch to a needy friend.  But that afternoon, he and I had a talk and he confirmed that he was actually eating two lunches a day!  We talked about budgets and food and portions, and I told him that he was only allowed to eat ONE lunch a day.  I packed bigger snacks and sometimes even packed two.  But a few days later, after I had once again replenished his account, I got another reminder notice from the school.  (Ugh...)  Mack and I talked again, and finally decided that the best thing to do was to go back to home lunches.  He thought it would be "too tempting" for him to see all those options and not go through the lunch line more than once.  So we were back to turkey and cheese sandwiches...


This morning, when I woke up, I found this on the counter...

Apparently he had gotten up in the middle of the night to write it.  Typically I'm not a fan of the kids placing orders for their lunches, but in this case, it was a simple request, so I did it.  This afternoon, Mack came home from school, hugged and kissed me, and said,

"Mommy!  That was the BEST lunch EVER!  Can I have peanut butter and honey sandwiches every day for the whole rest of the year???" 

Who knew it would be so easy to make an 8 year old happy?  All this time, I was just making things too complicated. (That happens every now and then in my life.)

Last night, before bed, he said,

"Oh...do you need a new note every day, or can I just keep putting this one on the counter in the morning?" 

I assured him that I would probably be able to remember peanut butter and honey even without the note, but that I would keep the note anyway.  

Oh how I love that kid!



 

41

Today is the Scout Master's birthday.  Unlike his high maintenance wife who likes a lot of fuss, tons of presents, and surprise parties for her birthday; the Scout Master prefers quiet, calm birthdays.  He was completely content with donuts for breakfast, lunch with friends, and presents and dinner with the kids.


Just after we put all the kids to bed, Mack came back down the stairs with one last present...

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving a day early this year.  

A few weeks ago, the missionary dinner calendar came around in RS.  With the Scout Master's current travel schedule, I knew Thanksgiving week was our only opportunity to feed the missionaries, so I signed up for tonight.  We don't have family in town.  We weren't traveling anywhere this year.  So I thought it would be fun to have someone to share Thanksgiving with...and who better than the missionaries?   They were already committed to dinner with someone else for Thursday, so I decided to just have our dinner a day early...which means they will have Thanksgiving twice, but I don't think they'll mind.  And then our dinner for 8 turned into dinner for 9, and then dinner for 14. 

When we walked into this house in June, I knew instantly that it was the right place for our family.  I pictured family nights, firesides, music, lots of kids, family and friends.  And that is exactly what happened tonight.  After a great dinner, we all lingered in the dining room (which is adjacent to the piano/music room.)  Someone asked Spell Girl to play her bass for us which she happily did.  Then TCD played the piano.  Then one of the missionaries played the piano and SANG!  And then (and this was the BEST part), while some of us were distracted in the kitchen, our new friend, Chad, picked up our lonely, neglected guitar, and RESTRUNG it!  And then he played it!  And then they all played together!!  

Yep, Elder Park is playing the maracas!  Chad was playing Feliz Navidad.  (So fun!)


Seriously, it was like one of those artsy jam sessions right in my living room.  It made my heart happy to hear that music coming from my house and my children and our friends.  We all had such a great night.  And I am so very grateful for the opportunity to live in this place at this time.