Picture Day

Today is picture day at school. It was rescheduled due to the hurricane. Rachel and I went over to the mall after school yesterday. Her hair needed a trim, and she wanted to pick out something new to wear. We had dinner in the food court and spent some time picking out clothes and trying them on. She loves shopping at Limited Too. It’s starting to get cooler, so we stocked up on some long-sleeved tops. As for Mitch, we are still trying to get Mitch’s hair straightened out from his last effort at cutting his own bangs. I don’t know why he does it, but he ends up with a triangle of missing hair on his forehead. Jerry took Mitch over to the salon last night to see what could be done. He already loves to gel his hair. The stylist showed him how to style it. He kept wetting it down this morning and checking himself in the mirror. If he keeps rewetting it, there won’t be much gel left. I hope his picture is taken in the morning. Rachel, too, because she has PE in the afternoon. You never know what you’re going to end up with until you open the envelope of photos that comes home in the backpack.

Every Girl's Dream

The kids ran in the Fun Run on Saturday. It was the 5th year we’ve participated. It’s always fun to watch them start out as a large group and then slowly turn into a string of runners circling the track. After the race, we got started on the painting. The hardest part is always unloading the rooms and prepping the crown molding with blue painter’s tape. Rachel and I did a lot of painting this weekend. She was a big help with priming the walls. We painted her new room on Saturday and the new guest room on Sunday.

On Saturday, I was painting the final wall when Jerry came in the front door and shouted upstairs for me to come outside. “Right now. You’ve got to see this!” is all he said. I put down the brush and wiped my hands on my pants. Parked alongside our house was a pickup truck with a horse trailer attached. There was a young man dressed as a knight in shining armor mounted on top of the horse with another young man dressed as a footman leading him down the street. Many of the neighbors were out on their front lawns watching as the knight slowly rode down the street and around the corner to the cul-de-sac. He got caught up in Karen’s front lawn as her dog started barking at the knight. He made it safely around the corner and proposed to one of the neighbor girls. There were cheers and applause as he got down on his knee and offered a diamond ring. Someone was shooting video, and I managed to get one picture from a distance. I’ll post it later if it came out decently. Generations of girls are raised to dream of being rescued by a knight in shining armor. I’m not sure why that is, but we certainly don’t see that sort of thing play out in our neighborhood.

Musical Bedrooms

Here we go with another painting project.  I thought I was finished for this year, but Rachel has her heart set on moving into the guest room. She started taking down her posters this week. The guestroom has less floor space, but it has a large, walk-in closet and it's own vanity & sink. Right now, the kids share a double vanity, each having their own sink. I can understand her wanting the bigger closet and her need for more privacy. Lord knows we can do without the sibling arguments of who is looking at or touching the other one on any given morning while brushing teeth. We are going to clean out the guestroom closet first and then empty the room. The furniture will have to sit out in the hallway because there’s nowhere else to put it while we are painting. She wants to stay with the same lime green paint.  I will have to prime and then paint the walls. After it dries, we will move Rachel’s furniture and clothes to the new room and then repaint her old room which will be the new guestroom. After that, we’ll move the furniture in there and rearrange the guestroom closet. I’m glad we had all of the upstairs bedrooms wired for cable and phone a long time ago. We won’t have to have the cable/phone guy out to the house again, nor will we lose access to the Jonas Brothers videos 24/7.

Loose Shingles

After the hurricane we found loose shingles in the yard and on the sidewalk. I have no idea where they came from.  A few shingles are missing from around the chimney. It’s hard to see up there, and we have no access to the roof other than eyeballing it from street level. With all the roofing contractors canvassing the neighborhood, we figured someone would eventually knock on the door to talk about roofs. Every day we get flyers and business cards taped to the front door offering debris removal, tree service, fencing and roof repairs. One of the neighbors a few doors down, who lost a few shingles from his roof, stopped by to say that someone finally came out to check his roof. Apparently, the entire roof needs to be replaced. I called our insurance company yesterday. It took 25 minutes because they had so many questions. They wanted to know the exact time that the damage occurred, whether we were present when the damage occurred, about the tree that landed on the garage roof, the fence that fell down, how long we lost power, how much we spent to replace our food, what kind of shingles we have, how many shingles we lost, what the pitch of our roof is, and so on. Man! Someone is supposed to get back to us within three business days. It rained heavily last night for 3 hours straight. I was thinking about all the houses in the neighborhood that still have blue tarps draped over their roofs. Jerry took a flashlight up to the attic to check for leaks during the rainstorm. I’d like to get the repairs done quickly. If we need to replace the entire roof, so be it; it will take longer to get bids and schedule a date.

Pass the Kleenex

I’ve watched all of the debates, but after seeing last night’s I was mortified by one of McCain’s comments. He complained that Obama did not step forward to repudiate a remark that someone else made about McCain. “That really hurt my feelings,” he said to Obama. I thought he was going to cry. All I can say is pass him the Kleenex. When you are running for President of the United States, you should act like one. There is no crying, and your lower lip must not quiver.

Fall Festivals

Autumn is my favorite season with October being my favorite month. The weather is slowly changing with cool temperatures setting in. The fall festivals are in full swing. Last weekend, there were three on the calendar – Italian, Katy Rice Harvest and Renaissance. We didn’t make it to the Italian festival. Scratched that. Instead, we went to the Katy Rice Harvest festival, and we brought along a neighborhood friend, Kadi. This year, the carnival games were very cheesy and the rides were in poor shape. I was disappointed in the long lines and high prices. It took more than an hour just to ride 3 rides. Some of the rides were $6/each, and the games were outrageously priced, too -- $7 for 3 darts to throw at balloons. The prizes were cheap plastics toys you typically see in the gumball machines at CiCi’s pizza. Not only that, they used a graduated type of system where you had to win the first level of prize and then play again and trade in your cheap plastic toy for the next level of cheapo toy.

There were a lot of vendor booths with everything from face painting and tattoos to makeup, Webkinz, and jewelry. We usually let the kids get some type of souvenir or memento. I steered them toward picking a Webkinz as opposed to the cheap prizes. We sampled a lot of the food – tacos, roasted corn, snow cones, pizza, sausage on a stick, and drinks. Surprisingly, I did not have funnel cake.

On Sunday, Kadi’s family went to the Renaissance Festival and took Rachel along. Jerry & Mitch went to the Texans game. They were up and out the door at the crack of dawn for the weekly tailgating feast. I had the whole darn house to myself. It was really quiet and heavenly. I used the time to get the laundry done and cleaned the house from top to bottom. Rachel came home with a Lady Katherine hat, one of those pointy blue velvet hats with the scarf dangling from the end. She wants to buy a dress to go with it for Halloween. Jerry and Mitch came home after witnessing the first Texan win this season. A miracle in itself. We ordered fajitas for dinner again. That’s two Sundays in a row.

Mitchell's 7th Birthday

Mitchell turned 7 last week. We got him a new bike because he was ready for a 20” bike. He is having the greatest time riding it around the neighborhood. We had a cake and ice cream party on Saturday at our house. We rented a bounce house for the day and had 9 boys and 2 girls jumping around and having a lot of fun.

They played Nerf tag in the back yard and took swings at the piñata. Some of the parents hung around to visit. The party lasted more than 4 hours. We unplugged the bounce house when it got dark and they picked it up the next morning. It was so easy and fun.

I turned 46 on Sunday, and you know what the means. Lots of leftover birthday cake. Chocolate birthday cake. Jerry and Mitch went to the Texans game, and Rachel and I did some light shopping at the mall. We ordered fajitas for dinner and watched the Steelers beat the Jags. A perfectly relaxing day!

Teenage Pranksters

Here's what the neighbor's house looked like this morning as I pulled out of the driveway.  I had to run back in just to get my camera. A total of four houses were TP'ed courtesy of the charming neighborhood teenagers with too much time on their hands.  I can't wait to see what they do for Halloween.