80% of New Orleans is still underwater....

the water is as deep as 20 feet and they have been unable to contain the influx from Lake Ponchatrain. Sushama's in-laws are with her in Longview and we have no family left there. But a good portion of the Sharma's friends do still live there and some of the families of our college friends. We will be keeping them all in our thoughts.

"Always keep an axe and an inflatable raft in your attic"

The first thing that I learned in college was that every attic in New Orleans should be equiped with an axe and a life raft. This must have been why.....Katrina Survivor Stories

Casual Week

I love working with people that have to get all dressed up. They always looks so respectable. I on the other hand work better in jeans. I've been working for years on how to get that to be the company policy... suits for everyone but me. In the meantime they throw me the occasional bone. We get to wear jeans this whole week. It may be trivial but it just makes me a happier person.

Typical Sunday

In keeping with family tradition we started Sunday off by making a deal. Sid agreed to take the kids to the zoo to play while I stayed home to clean the house. That might not sound like a great deal to everyone but sometimes it's nice to be home alone even if the price is scrubbing and the zoo looses some of its charm when its this hot.

Sheela took in a perfect butterfly to the Nature Exchange. We were unable to identify this one, it appears to be some type of Skipper. She hadn't gotten around to installing him in her collection yet. I don't know what she said about him but he was worth 270 points. She actually redeemed 200 points and brought home the right half of the lower jaw of deer with all of it's teeth (though some are loose just like hers). She still has 1200+ points and Sunil has at least 800.

The house looks great! I dusted, I swept, I dry "swiffered", I wet swiffered, I hand scrubbed the kitchen floor. Everyonce in awhile even the cleaning can be fun and relaxing.

Final Inspection Preparation

Sid finished caulking and painting the exterior of the renovated garage last night... with a little help from Sunil.

Hot Wheels Photos

I went ahead and added my photos from this weekends games to my Flickr account. Somebody let me know if you can get to them. Thanks.

Panthers (98) are undefeated!

The girls kicked off their season this weekend too. One game was Friday night and two were today. We won 3-1, 9-1 and 6-4. I'm not entirely sure about the last score, I had to leave to watch the boys.
Both teams played without their headcoach, he was out with a canine medical emergency. The dog will be fine. Sid (and David) stepped up to coach the girls team. The boys have an assistant coach who took care of things. The weather made this day pretty rough, but everyone held together. It's over 100 degrees today and humid with it. I'm just glad we got it all over this morning.

Novices no more

The Hot Wheels are now officially soccer players. They had two games today and managed to score a few goals in each game! The first game was against an older boys team with a year of experience, had we been keeping score we'd know that we lost 22-2. Luckily we don't keep score and only a few of the boys can count... though they all know that it wasn't close.


The second game was against an older girls team... see the comments above.

Eagle Cup Tournament Schedule

Sheela's soccer season kicks off tonight with a 7 PM game followed by two games tomorrow at 8 Am and 10 Am. Sunil's season dovetails in tomorrow at 9 am and 11 am. Technically neither team keeps score but the kids always know. Half of Sheela's team played indoor this summer and they are in pretty good shape even if they haven't really had much practice yet this Fall. Sunil's team is goign to get skunked, they were the only under 5 boys team to sign up. Since the only under 5 girls team declined to play them, we're playing up a grade. Most of those boys played last year. Our boys have never even stood on a field with lines or goals.

Kiwanis Clubs

Sid and I attended a Kiwanis club meeting at lunchtime today. We are hoping that it will count towards our training requirement. The speaker owns a local Chik-fil-A franchise. He was very entertaining and everyone was very welcoming. Lunch was pretty good too. They start their meetings with a few songs, it was reminiscent of church hymns but the songs were: My Country tis of Thee, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and Sing, Sing A Song. We lowered the median age in the room by a fair margin and got the full court membership press from half a dozen of the regulars. I don't know that we'll go back unless it counts for a full hour of training, but it made for a nice change of pace.

Hoy es día del tejano

When the radio first went off this morning I knew that something was different. My normal radio station sounded more ethnic than usual. I wasn't too alarmed, freak weather patterns occasionally blur my station with the Spanish station up the dial. Usually it lasts a few hours during which neither station can really be heard and it only effects the radio in my room. Today however the Spanish was crystal clear and my regular station gone. Even more telling, it's all of the radios in the house and the car all the way up to my office (I've never had blurring this far North). It may be time to admit that failing ratings have given way to a permanent format change. I'll give the Tejano station a few more days (it's really rather peppy) before starting the search for a permanent replacement. Until then it's Tejano day.

Snaggletooth and Picture Day

Darling daughter finally ripped out the tooth that has been loose since the reunion in mid-July. That still leaves the front two teeth on the top loose. I'm hoping that they will go before this one gets replaced. I'm sure she wont loose them before Sept. 2 which is picture day for her. Not that it matters too much, she got my lips and my teeth. The teeth don't show when she smiles but I know that she's snaggly.

Oregon Scientific

I'm glad to have my camera back. It doesn't have the speed neccesary to take great pictures. It runs off of two AAA batteries, and I haven't yet gotten it rechargables. But I can take it everywhere. Here are a few pictures for my entertainment (yes, it's all about me).

This was the picture I took of Sunil to show that the camera was in fact working again.





A picture of Sheela doing her homework (as soon as it was assigned and not waiting to the last minute).



A picture of Mommy cooking dinner and a picture of Daddy and Sunil.


Oh and one of Sheela's Brownie Troop from last year at the Fort Worth Zoo Overnight trip. It's been stuck on the camera since May.

Don't we look spiffy.....

Well Sunil looks spiffy, I trust that I looked better when I had a head but I'm not here to quibble about the details. Obviously, we were given our jerseys at last night's practice. I think I'm more excited about mine than Sunil is about his... and he is pretty pumped.

I'm hooked....

on reading this blog http://www.ballofdirt.com/journeys/3554.html . My friend Lynn sent it to me. While I hate to spoil the ending, the author is on a trek around all sorts of cool places but he disapears from his base camp at Mt. Everest. This is the year or so that comes before that. I've only read the first five or six posts but I enjoy his style and his enthusiasm for his adventure.

Garage sales are not for me......

I always suspected that this was true, but I've never really given it a chance. Now I know. I don't like them. True, the weather would have been better if we'd waited another month or two, and the response might have been better if the newspaper had actually run the ad, or if the city hadn't removed the signs after only the first hour. But I still don't see it as a good use of my time. Most of what I want to get rid of is always kid's clothes which are not high dollar items anyway. From now on I will stick to donations. The Sharmas take some back to India with them when they go, the balance I had ear marked for Hope's Closet (the Collin County Foster/Adoptive Parent's charitable clothing shop) but the Closet is temporarily closed due to Fraud allegations. The things that we didn't sell went to Goodwill, the furniture will go to the Slavation Army. Nothing came back in the house at all. So I'm happier even if I'm not really any richer. I spent most of my earnings on a bike that Brenda was selling at the garage sale. It was time to move Sheela up.

Queen of the Idiots... that's me

As you may recall, I was awarded a really neat little digital camera for my 10 year gift at work. I only used it for two months before frying it's little brain when my computer went to sleep and the USB cable was still connected. I've mis-placed all of the information that came with the camera including the warranty card which I never mailed in. I've put off trying to contact the company for awhile now because I knew that I would not be able to get the camera replaced. In the meantime I've kept it, with what little info I could find, in my beltpouch. I needed the beltpouch for the garage sale, so I pulled out the camera. Sunil fell in love with it.

So I gave it to him. It doesn't bother him that it doesn't turn on. He loves to take the picture and then turn it around to show you what it looks like. Since it doesn't turn on, now he gets to describe what the picture looks like to you too. That's usually the best part. After he played with it for an hour it occurred to me that I never removed the memory stick. I always transferred the data with the USB cable so I at the time when it dies the pictures that were still on it were lost. But the new camera I use at work came with stick reader that is compatible with my stick. So I pulled out the card and put it in my purse to bring on in to work.

Sunil watched me take it out. He assumed that I was removing the battery and asked me to put in a new one so that his camera will work again. I explained why that wont do the trick and he went away happy. It took me nearly an hour before I caved. I went and got fresh batteries, replaced the ones in the camera and fired it right on up.

Everything is always a good news/bad news sort of thing. Great the camera works, too bad I've just given to the four year old. Great that the camera works , bad that I figured it out after I had the summer of a life time without it. Oh, and it's too bad for Sunil -- he is still young and easily managed. He gave the camera back to me - that's good! But I still feel like the Queen of the Idiots.

Another busy day in paradise.....

Last night Sid picked the kids up early to go to the sprayground... The sprayground, for those of you that don't live with a heat index of 110 degrees, is an outdoor playground that sprays water all over the play equipment much like playing in the backyard sprinkler but on a clean, soft surface. Then they all picked up a quick dinner and hustled Sunil over to his swim lesson.

I went directly to 2nd grade curriculum night. The teachers got to explain their game plan for the year and answer questions (mostly to pertaining to why there wont be any spelling tests this year). They got me hooked, I'd love to take second grade from any of these ladies. Sheela's teacher, by the way, has her Master's degree in teaching children to read and the lead teacher is a science nut. In case you're bothered by the lack of spelling tests, studies have proven time and time again that children don't learn to spell the words on the spelling tests, they just know them long enough to pass the test. They do get spelling during their group reading, draft book writing, social studies and math classes. Strangely enough, in third grade the spelling tests will be back.

We all met back at the house just in time for Claire and Travis to come over so that Coach could attend the coach's meeting. We played Frisbee, we played soccer, we played tag and keep away. We took tours of Sunil's new bed. We played hide and seek.

The Sharmas went to visit a friend in for the night from out of town so they missed most of the chaos.

Coach brought us back our game schedules. Both kids have all of their games on Saturdays, unfortunately, they did not put the games back to back like we were hoping. Almost every week the games are three hours apart or more and sometimes at two different parks. Twice Sunil will have conflicts with his music class. At least we don't have any games that are at the same time and different parks.

After the kids went to bed, I pulled all of the clothes out of the "give-away" pile (the left half of my closet from the knees down) and put them in the living room. Mommy (and yes, we do pronounce that "mummy") will sort through them today. Some of the kids clothes they will take to India in September to give away. The rest will go in the garage sale. I borrowed two craft tables so that I will be able to lay all of this stuff out for sale tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be another busy day.....

The Loft

Sunil slept very happily in his new loft. He is a little bit concerned about climbing down but is rapidly getting past his discomfort. He's pretty excited about the new dresser too. The desk has been on loan from an infant that we know... the infant is now 13 months old and ready to get it back so we'll have to work something else out for that.

Home Again

The Sharmas returned home last night. They went to visit Ravi, et al, in New Jersey. They also managed a couple of short trips to Conneticut and Boston. They had a good time but I'm glad that they are back home.

Loft bed

Sunil's new loft bed has been mostly assembled in his room. We didn't actually pull out the old bed yet so his room is really full, but Sid and his Dad will fix that today. The bed can be set up as two bunks, but we are going to just use the top bed and move his dresser underneath it. This will give him some more usable floor space. He is convinced that he's ready to sleep up there but I'm not sure he's ready. He needs more practice on getting back on the ladder to come down. I also want to add a solid "bunkie" board under the mattress. Right now the mattress is suspended on four wires and it has a lot of give. You wont fall through..... but you feel like you will.

Hot Wheels

It's official, Team H from the boys U5 Division of the AYSA, will now be known as "The Hot Wheels". The uniform jersey will be bright blue with red lettering/numbering, red shorts and bright blue socks. We may not be the most serious looking team in the league but they will see us coming. We should get the uniforms a week from Thursday. The first tournament will be that Friday and Saturday.

The second rainy season......

Usually we get our rain in June but this year we've gotten at least two solid bonus weeks of storms. Sheela is supposed to be watering the Sharmas outside plants while they are in NJ, but she's only been able to water them once. It has rained every day at least enough to fill the pots with water, last night it rained enough to put standing water in the backyard. It also rained hard enough and with enough horizontal velocity to push open the front door and rain in at least four feet and to drive water in through the window seals on half of the windows on the front side of the house.

Second Grade....

We slipped past the first week and are starting to get in to the real schooling now. Which is good, because when I ask Sheela what she learned she always tells me "nothing". I need to work on the way that I phrase that question. Leaving that aside, there is a new homework format this year.

Last year 95% of the homework that Sheela brought home was a single sheet of math problems covering some addition, some subtraction, some word problems, picture problems, math sentances, graphing and fractions. Usually there were only 10 problems a night. This year she gets a mix of "word work", math and reading. There are five assignments a week and she gets to choose two of five from the word work, two of five from the math and one of five reading assignments. She gets the list on Monday and has until Friday to complete them.

For reading she chose to read me a book and then I had to write a note to Mrs. DeWatters telling her which book it was. For her first math she chose to "identify two shapes" that she can find in her bedroom and two shapes that she can find on the play ground. I hope that the level of difficulty ramps up quickly. Her second math will be to write a story problem about a bus that makes five stops. She has to describe what happens at each stop.

The word work involves the correct use of a list of words that is provided for the week. For example, choose five of the words and use each one correctly in a sentance. Or choose five words and then write down that word and a synonym for that word. There will be no spelling tests this year at all.

The return of the shed......

Jazmine, Sheela and Sunil helped Sid paint the shed this weekend. But they couldn't reach the high spots. We still have a little bit more to do but it's looking really nice.

1 1/2 Hours.... 1 1/2 rolls of masking tape....

While Sunil and I went shopping, Sid set Ronnie Sue and Sheela the task of covering an entire chair in masking tape. They did a beautiful job. How long will it take them to remove the tape?

Soccer Gear

Here Sunil, freshly decked out in shin guards, cleats and soccer socks, demonstrates techniques to Bello. The cat makes even the basic drills just a touch harder.

PMAB Training or how to be a parent.....

SId and I were lucky enough to get in to a local training class to satisfy our annual PMAB requirement. We usually have to drive to Fort Worth. This class was an overview for another class called "Love and Logic". It was actually quite entertaining, that was a bonus. I like the Love and Logic approach to parenting. If you ever get the chance take one of their classes or buy one of their books give it a try. It's worth it.

Introducing...... Bello

Bello followed Sunil home from the park about 10 days ago and we resisted as long as we could. But today Sid finally caved and fed him. He has lived in our backyard, peering in through our windows almost the whole 10 days.... though for a day or two we thought that he'd given up. Sunil is the official "Captain of the Cat" but he belongs to us all. I'm not sure how Sunil came up with the name but it stuck. Bello will be an outside cat because Gina, our indoor cat, has no appreciation for other animals.

Garden surprise

While her grandparents are in NJ Sheela is supposed to be watering all of Grandpa's outside plants. It has poured rain at least once everyday that they've been gone until yesterday. So for the first time Sheela got to water the plants and she found two watermelons. I had just about given up on the melons when the mini-pumpkins stopped producing (we did get four pumpkins a little smaller than my fist). The watermelons are still single serving size but may get larger and there are more flowers still on the vines.

"Feel my day Mommy"

The best part of my day all last year was during dinner when Sunil would say, "Feel my day Mommy". And then he would struggle to explain why it was either good or bad. Now he no longer uses that phrase and he starts telling us about his day as soon as he sees us at the school and he doesn't stop until about an hour after he goes to bed. Apparently an audience is really not required for the conversation. It's fun to listen to him talk. I love the way he chooses his words and how the story changes to fit the words that he wants to use more than the facts at hand but I miss the phrase, "Feel my day Mommy".

Teachers and Communication

Today is only the the 4th day of school and so far Sheela has received two personal letters from her teacher the last of which included this picture of the two of them from the first day of school and I've received three emails. Sheela also received a letter from her first grade teacher asking her to write or call when she has a chance. Mrs. Huddle moved to North Carolina over the Summer, so she included her new address, phone number and email address. I don't think I ever knew where any of my teachers lived, they certainly weren't asking me to stop in or call. This is nice.

Sunil's Meet the Teacher Night

After swim class last night we all went up Sunil's school to meet Ms. Tehmina. We actually already know her so we took this opportunity to put names and faces together for the kids and meet some of the parents. Allen Montesorri Academy is much larger than DeGroot Private Academy which is great but we have a lot more names to learn.

Add one more to the mix....

We still haven't re-opened the "foster parent" doors for business but it looks like we may get to keep Jazmine for a week in early September. Once again her mom is being asked to make a business trip to Japan. They've set her up to go about once a month for the last three months without her really every getting to go. This time it looks a little bit more likely.

In the meantime, Sheela and Sunil are going to spend the night with Farhana and Jaz on Friday, and then Jazmine will stay with us on Saturday night.

School Days Again

The official Allen ISD start date is today. Sheela has started 2nd grade and Sunil still has a year of pre-school before Kindergarten. Today was his official first day too (he's actually been at this school since June 1.) but now he gets to wear a uniform. Grammylyn took some pictures of the kids for me this morning but I wont get them until after she gets back to TN. Her flight is midday today. I'm going to miss her -- we had a wonderful time.

Yesterday Grammylyn, Sheela, Sunil and I went to the Heard Museum here in McKinney. It was the first time I've ever been there but I've known about it for years. They have a large collection of venomous snakes, most of which are in VA at the National Boy Scout Jamboree, and an extensive collection of Raptors, which were also off educating someone about something. But there was enough stuff still there to keep the kids (and adults) entertained. They even have a few miles of hiking trails so we managed a mile and a half trail under the trees during the rain and didn't even get wet. There aren't too many places in Texas that you can get the trees close enough together for that sort of thing.

Allen Firestation #2

Friday Grammylyn, Sheela and Sunil walked up to our local firestation. That wasn't really their intended destination but the doors were open so they stopped to peek inside and were invited in to take the full tour. It sounds like they had a wonderful time, both kids were able to "drive" the truck and Grammylyn was impressed to find that their compressed air cylinders are stored in the seats so that they sit down into them on the way to the fire and pop out wearing them when they get there.

The Draft

Sunil has been assigned to a soccer team with Coach Tim and his friend Travis. The team is seven boys under five years old. They will play without goalies and with a size 2 ball (that is pretty small). I know they make cleats that small and I'm sure they make tiny shin guards but I've never seen them.

The official word has also come down that we did not have enough girls to field an indoor team this session so we are commitment-free for the next few weekends.

Meet the Teacher Night

Last night was the Anderson All-Star's official "Meet the Teacher Night" so Sid, Sheela and I trucked up to the school to meet Mrs. DeWaters (or as we like to call her Misty Waters). She's just like a normal teacher, but on speed. She is very high energy and very funny. I think Sheela is going to love her. Two of her classmates from last year are also in this class (George and Peyton R.), as are two of the girls from her Brownie troop (Lisa and Hunter P.) and one girl from her swim lessons (Danielle). She also knows the girl that will be sitting next to her (Kelsey) but I don't know her -- I do know the others.

School starts on Monday and Sheela is now in the second grade.

Karin

Psycotropic Medications

Last night we attended our annual refresher on the uses, care and storage of medications with an emphasis on those used for behavior modification in small children. Here's all you need to know: Keep all medicines locked up. Keep each persons medications segregated. Keep fanatically accurate details of the dispensing information. Ask 1000 questions before starting a child on a new med or before altering an existing med plan. Make sure the psychiatrist, the general practitioner, the school nurse and the pharmacist are all your best friend and that they talk to each other. Many of the drugs used to treat behavior have what used to be called "street value" -- the new term is "school bus value". Kids learn really early that they can make money by sharing their medicines.

The training that we attended lasted two hours but we didn't cover much more than this. The upside is that it counts as two hours of training for each of us. We are required to have 30 hours each every year.

Sheela is home!

Mom (Grammylyn) and Sheela arrived back safely yesterday. They had a few delays and were rerouted through Chicago but made it home in time for a late dinner and extensive debriefing. It sounds like a wonderful time was had by all.

Hand Model

Once again my talent for holding very still for very brief periods of time has landed me a job as a hand model (okay, everyone left early yesterday except for me). But I got to mime the application of loctite in our manufacturing process for the reference photos. I'll add the photos if I can find them after the retoucher finishes with them.

Alum Caves Bluff

Sheela, Grammylyn and GranndpaJohn hiked the Alum Caves Bluff trail last Saturday. This is why they call the Smokey Mountains the Smokey Mountains.

Golf Camp

I finally have pictures from Sheela's golf camp! Thanks Mom! The trophy is for participation in the tournament and her friend's name is Sophie. Sheela and Mom come home tomorrow.