Flickr Photos from Big Bend

I managed to upload the remainder of the pictures from our Big Bend trip to Flickr. Take a look if you get a chance. I don't know how you search to find my pictures once you get there and searching for Big Bend will get many more choices than you'll want to search. I'll give it some thought.

Outdoor Time

Sheela and Aneleise took Bello and the kittens out for some fresh air yesterday. The kittens enjoyed it much more this time. They are all very curious and agile. It's a lot harder to keep track of them all now that they are brave enough to run under the fence and coordinated enough to climb up on top of the piles of junk in the corners.

Correction

Owens Spring Creek Farm is no longer free inspite of the claim on their website. The cost was $6/each but as it is nearly Halloween we got to take advantage of the free hayride and the free hotdog for that price. We could have purchased some very nice pumpkins at only $10/each too (that is more than a 50% savings). Luckily, Sheela went to a pumpkin patch on Staurday with Zachary and his family. That pumpkin patch is already clearing out their leftovers at the low, low price of $10/wheelbarrowfull. They gave us plenty of pumpkins. We did get them carved this afternoon.

Catching up

My Pampered Chef order arrived Friday night... well, six of the seven cartons arrived. It took only an a hour and a half to inventory it and divide it up. Now I have to cart it to work and pass it out.

Sheela had picture retakes for the soccer team Saturday morning at 7:30am. That's about five minutes after the sunrise and it was cold! I think that the pictures will be fine but of course one of the girls overslept and didn't make it. Over all the team did not play its best but Sheela had a great game in the goal. Still they lost this one by two.

Sunil's pictures weren't until the afternoon and not only did everyone show up, half the team was actually early. The boys game was the most even game that they've had. Which is to say that they had as much trouble as we did keeping four players on the field. The boys tend to wander off. The biggest bursts of speed from both teams come as soon as the ball goes out of bounds. They race to see who can pick it up first and then get in to fights over who gets to take the ball back to the ref. We actually had to pull Sunil out of the game twice for touching the other team. He is in this phase where he feels like he has to be touching somebody at all times. As a parent its pretty annoying, I'm sure it is to the other team too. We are still working on how to put a stop to this.

Saturday night we went to a casual dinner at a friends house that expanded to be five couples twelve kids (in costumes) and a full on party spread. I ate a ton and we stayed until after midnight. Most of the kids had gone to sleep long since but ours held out to the end. We got them to bed at 1:00AM but we also got to set the clocks back so the sleeping in didn't interfere with our day too much.

It's not even 10:00AM yet and we are getting ready to go to Owens Spring Creek Farm. Yesterday Sunil asked why he's never been to a working farm to see the animals. Because your mother didn't realize we'd been so negligent. The farm is the headquarters for Owens Country Sausage, its only 15 minutes away, its open every day, its free and we used to drive by it at least twice a day. I didn't realize that Sunil had never been.

Sunil also wants to go to the Zoo today. I'd love to do that too. They opened the new Asian Small Clawed Otter exhibit a few months back but we haven't gone there to see it. But it's not going to happen today. We were also supposed to be trimming out the family room today, but Sid has to go pull down a fence and switch out a stove. One of the tenants called to say that her stove was leaking gas. Yikes.

Mavericks vs. Pistons

I went to the a Mavericks pre-season game last night with Brenda, her daughter Allie and Allie's boyfriend Eric. It was good to get out with Brenda again. She is really nice but between our two kids and their four kids we don't make it out very often. It was a good game --no matter which team you were cheering for. Detroit was ahead most of the game but Dallas won in the end.

Wonton Wrappers

We ended up with quite a few wonton wrappers after the Pampered Chef party a week ago. The kids have been asking to use them up so last night we made baked potstickers for dinner. The filling was canned chicken, grated carrots, mayo, garlic, gingerroot, onion, soy sauce and egg white. The dipping sauce was warmed plum sauce with rice vinegar, soy sauce and diced jalapenos. Best of all the kids did almost all of the filling and the wrapping. The potstickers were quite yummy and the kids ate them with enthusiasm. We may do some tonight stuffed with crabmeat.

Happy Birthday Gramma N.

Today is Gramma Neilans' birthday. It's not often that I remember to call her but I did remember today. She went to lunch with Aunt Carol and had a nice quiet day.

We are Love and Logic parents.....

Sid and I finished our 14 hour training course yesterday. I think I'm going to miss it. They will offer it again in January (but I don't know if they will let us get credit for it again so soon). I would take it again in a heart beat. There is only so much that you can get out of one lesson and remember long enough to practice and internalize. The next time you get something different.

The three things I'm trying to take away from this whole class and work in to my normal life are: 1) don't tell your kids what to do. Give them choices (that you can live with) and let them suffer the consequences if they make a bad decision.

2) Never nag, especially not over homework. Nagging them about their homework denies them the opportunity to screw it up and learn a valuable (low cost) lesson. The school already provides the negative consequences. Done properly this is a win-win for the parent. Instead of asking after the work that still has to be done ask the child to show you what they did well and verbalize why it was so successful. This trains them to see their accomplishments and not their failures. Done wrong they can train the child hide their performance and their school work from you. Should the child suffer a bad grade from their failure to make a wise choice remember the phrase "Oh, honey, that's so sad. Try not to worry about it. They teach this grade at school every year. We will still love you no matter how many times you get to repeat it."

3) Chores (now called contributions) are the easiest route for children to learn many wonderful lessons including that everyone needs to contribute, there is not always a financial reward, its nice to help others, trade can benefit everyone, perserverance, and success is its own reward.

Miscellaneous

Sometime during the course of the weekend my fundraiser flower order was delivered to our front porch. I bought two flats of violas, one yellow and one purple. Of course Saturday we were too busy with soccer to plant, and Sunday we were at Farhana's. Last night was the first chance I've had to get them in the ground. Unfortunately, Sunday it was in the low 40s and raining, Sunday night it dropped to the mid-30s. The violas look a quite a bit worse for the delay in planting but we put them in anyway. The kids did most of them. It may not be one of our best years for flowers. But we gave it a try.

We also planned to carve the pumpkins last night. One of them has already rotted on the front porch (I only bought them a week ago). So that didn't work out quite the way I planned.

The best though is of course the status of the great kitten give away. The neighbors told my friend Brenda that they definitely wanted one of the kittens. So I went by to confirm which kitten and to set up a time frame. The husband of the pair was the only one home and he'd never heard word one about the kttens. He will confer with the wife and check back -- but I've written them off. One of the other definites apparently hasn't asked his parents yet either. I'm guessing that that will fall through. The friend that wants the mother wont even come over to meet her until the kittens are all gone (so that her daughter doesn't fall in love with a kitten instead of the cat). That leaves only one kitten earmarked, and they want us to hold her for another couple of weeks beacuse of their travel schedule. At least they still want her but we need to get that room set back up as a bedroom. Even if the foster agency keeps calling with inappropriate placements (eventually they will get the right one), we have company coming and nowhere to put them. Plus Sid and Sheela keep getting more and more attached. Though I do think Sid is hamming it up just a little for my benefit.

The Phantom strikes.... again

The other morning Sheela came out of the house to find the phantom on our front porch with her name on it. Of course it comes with a bag of candy and instructions on passing it on to three friends without letting them know who left it there. So we pass it along to three friends... one of course has already brought it back again. Now we need to find three more friends... I'm tempted to have her give one to Sunil, but then I have to help him find three friends and that is a lot more difficult.

Soccer Saturday....

Instead of trying to squeeze in two soccer games and a music class all in a Saturday morning this weekend we managed to make it take all day. Sheela had an early game, 9:00 AM, against two of her former teammates. It was a rout, again. The Panthers are having a really good season. Music class fell in the middle of the day and Sunil's game wasn't until 5:45PM. So they played with the setting sun in their eyes and a definite chill in the air. They actually won the game in what was the most even match they've played to date.

After the game we hustled the kids off to Farhana's house to spend the night and Sid and I went out to dinner. We slept late on Sunday and then spent the day with Farhana and Jazmine catching up on some of her home repair projects in exchange for a pitcher of margaritas and an indoor cookout (the temperature dropped to the low 40s and it started to rain). it was a good weekend all the way around.

Halloween precursor

Friday night Rick, Patricia and Ericka came over for dinner. Ericka picked out her Halloween costume that night too and so we got to see it fresh from the store. As long as she was showing off hers, Sheela and Sunil felt the need to show off theirs. The picture is rather poor but Sheela is a cheetah, Sunil is wearing last year's tiger costume and Ericka is a gothic girl (or so the package said). Sunil will really be wearing his Spiderman costume but that picture was even worse.

Jacket Weather

Wow! It's in the low 50s here this morning. It will, of course, still get up in to the upper 70s this afternoon, we may even break 80. But we wont have upper 90s like we did for the golf tournament. What really matters is that we actually got to put on jackets this morning. I'm very excited. This is the best weather that Texas has to offer and it doesn't last long.

Back in Bombay.....

Dr. Sharma called me last night. He's talked to Sid a few times but this was the first time that I've gotten to talk to them. They have finished their first month of travelling and are settling in for 3-4 weeks in Mumbai with his sister, Sushila. I hope to manage to manage some emails and such while they are in a settled location.

16th Semi-annual IS Golf Classic

Here I am with James, Donna and Leo. We played in the IS golf tournament this afternoon. It wasn't a particularly good round for any of us. Even playing best-ball on nine holes we came in +5. I did have two decent drives and two decent putts. I missed winning the longest drive (for a woman) by less than two feet. We had an excellent time and I spent time with people I don't usually get to see, so over all the day was a success.

I really do work here.....

After taking a whole week off to go to Big Bend, I returned to the office in time to leave early sick one day, arrive late after a dentist appointment one day, leave early for a Parent/Teacher conference one day and then travel for two days. This week I should have gone home sick on Monday (I was more or less a zombie and accomplished very little), Tuesday I spent four hours at a vendor visit on the other side of town, today we are leaving early for the semi-annual IS golf tournament, tomorrow I have a two hour training class at lunch. Friday will be my first FULL day at work in nearly three weeks. I had three projects that I wanted to have wrapped up back in September that are still outstanding and I'm starting to get panicky. I don't like to get this far behind.

School Fundraisers.......

I recall three times during my student days when I engaged in fundraising activities: girl scout cookie sales, 5th grade camp (wrapping paper/greeting card sales), and a Civitans Club car wash. For the first two I went door to door and gave a little sales spiel in hopes of generating a sale. For the car wash I stood on a street corner waving rags and holding a sign.

So far this year Sheela has had two fundraisers and Sunil one. The first one for Sheela was wrapping paper, magazines and silver jewelry, the second is discount cards for area restaurants and Sunil's is Christmas themed gifts. In all three cases the kids are only allowed to sell to people that they know personally. It is no longer safe to go door to door. The kids only know other kids that go to the same schools and are selling the same stuff. Therefore it falls to the parents to take the catalogs to work to sell. Sid doesn't have an office so it comes to me. That's okay, I've been supporting all of my friend's kid's fundraisers for years. We have girl scout cookie sales (at least three girls each year), wrapping paper (at least five kids each year), Christmas themed gifts (at least five kids), passbook coupon books (at least one), pizza kits (at least two kids), boy scout popcorn sales (at least one kid), greeting cards (at least two), candy bar sales (two kids), discount cards (two-five kids), cookie dough/pies/cheesecakes (at least three kids), candles (five kids), pansies sales (one kids but he keeps coming back), Jump Rope For Heart (straight donation), Rudolph Run for Cancer (straight dontation), Breast Cancer Walks, Home Run Derbys, Bowling for Dollars...... it just never stops. Except for the boy scouts and the girl scouts the kids aren't allowed to sell the stuff. It has become a full time side line at work. We have set up a table in the women's bathroom to hold the catalogs (that's the best place to sell cookies, pies and cheesecake), other tables are set up in the breakroom and strategic hallways around the office spaces, we have banners hung up over desks........ after awhile is doesn't matter how good the cause it's just too much.

The single tooth is gone.....

Sheela pulled her one remaining tooth last night. Okay, there may be some other teeth in her mouth but the don't usually show. She now has three out in a row on th etop.

Pampered Chef Party

This was the centerpiece that I whipped up for the table at the party. I don't do that sort of thing often so I want credit when I do. Btw - the mini-pumpkins are from the vines that grew this summer out of last year's compost. The party was great, a few people stood me up, but we had a good turn out anyway and the food was delicious as always. I brought the leftover, creme puffs, eclairs and lemon-blueberry triffle to work today to get them out of our house. I have to find something to fill wontons with in the next few days too, I ended up with 40 extra wonton wrappers.

Home again

The trip to CA was a success. Our presentation was received with much more enthusiasm than I expected. It was also given to a much wider audience than I was anticipating. If they choose to use the custom form (for controlling document and bill of material changes) I may get to go out there another time or two, which would be okay with me. One of the guys on their management team is my old boss from Telios, Kevin Sumstine. He took Fred (my boss) and I to lunch. It was good to catch up plus he has a lot of good ideas on process changes he'd like to implement and I liked hearing about those too.

The hotel that we were in was right actoss the road from the Pacific, but my room overlooked the courtyard pool. It was beautiful. We got in too late and left to early to make use of it, but like I said, I may get to go back.

California

I'm off to spend the night in California. Of course that's not really the point of the trip, I have a meeting there tomorrow. But it's my first time back to So.CA in 11 years and I'm rather excited. I wont actually have time to meet up with any of the friends that are still there (most have already moved on) but I do want to see how things have changed.

oooohhhhh.......

they are fun now! The kittens are getting cuter and more playful everyday. I went in to bid them goodnight and they all five came running (some with more grace than others) as soon as I opened the door. I lay down on the floor and let them crawl all around me. They got tangled in my hair, clawed up my legs with their microscopic claws and tickled my face with their whiskers. But it was all good fun.

We even take them out in them out in the backyard from time to time to let them smell some fresh air (five cats in one room gets a little bit ripe). Two of them love it out there and two of them are intimidated by the wind, but they are all curious. Bello acts like she's getting ready to go into heat again, so I'm trying not to let her out at all.

Parent Teacher Conference Day

***Brag Warning*** Sid and I went in to talk to Mrs. DeWaters this afternoon about Sheela and her year to date. She's off to a pretty good start. She reads above a 6th grade level but her comprehension skills put her at a 5th-6th grade level so that is where she is working. She is pretty far ahead in math and science as well. She plays well with all of the other kids, it doesn't matter which group she's in. She is a natural leader, bright and outgoing. This year we need to have her admitted into the AIM program (the new talented and gifted acronym). I just love these meetings.

Just because I like this one.....

These are Sunil's little boots standing on one of my favorite rocks on the way up to Balanced Rock.

Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit

I took Sheela, Sunil and Ronnie Sue to see a movie today. I think that this was the first time that I have gone with Sunil to a movie and only the second time for me to go with Sheela. It wasn't great but they liked it and that is what I wanted.

Try viewing the family photos here.....

Big Bend Photos I only have about half of them loaded because I ran out of free upload space for the month. Check back in November, I'm too cheap to pay to upload the rest.

Big Bend National Park

We've returned from our family vacation and it was wonderful! On Sunday we drove down to Marathon, TX (population 455) and checked in to the last available motel room in town. It only had one bed and enough floor space for one roll away but it was clean and cute. The fact that it came with ear plugs should have been a clue to expect the trains, but it was way too late to be choosy. There are four restaurants in this little town but only one is open on Sunday night luckily for us it was next door to our "cottage". It also had a beautiful court yard and great Mexican food. The town boasts only one grocery store and the "For Lease" sign in the window didn't stop them from opening up in the morning for our provisioning. The cooler had gone out during the night but we bought enough to get by.


We drove in to Big Bend the next morning (only a one hour drive) entering the park from the North through Persimmon Gap and started our adventures with some trailblazing to see if we could find the "three hoodoos" rock formation. We found it easily enough and enjoyed our first trek through the desert. Then we continued on to the Panther's Junction Visitor Center and then to the Chisos Basin camp ground.

While in the park we saw: vultures, hawks, ravens, a tarantula, scorpions, walking stick insects, preying mantises, millipedes, jackrabbits, deer, coyotes, fox, a four inch long wasp, bats, birds and butterflies.

The basin appears to be a crater in the center of ring of volcanic peaks, but it isn't. The peaks were formed by lava pushed up from underneath but there was never a volcano. The ring is nearly complete except for a small gap in the Western wall which they call the Window. All of the rain that falls in the basin collects in a small creek that runs down the center of the basin and out through the Window. This makes it a popular sunset viewing spot from near the camp ground and the lodge. The next day we did the 5 mile round trip out to stand in the window and look out.

We camped two more nights on the Eastside of the Park in the Rio Grande Village. The first night was almost too warm and the second night we piled all four of us in together for warmth. While we were there Sheela lost one of her front teeth so she has two out side by side. We're calling her snaggle tooth now.
We hiked the Boquillas Canyon to see (and wade) in the Rio Grande, to the old Hot Springs bath house (washed away in a Rio Grande flood back in the 30's but the spring is still there and the water is still 105 degrees), and the Grapvine Hills trail to see (and touch) the balanced rock. We drove to the Westside of the park to see the Santa Elena canyon but the rain had moved in and the visibility was too limited to enjoy the sights, instead we left the park and went to Terilingua for lunch and to see the old ghost town.

On the way back home we did some hiking in Abilene State Park just to break up the drive. It was pretty and pleasant, a lot more trees and much thicker undergrowth (since there was something to grow under). We saw quite a few deer, an armadillo (alive) and a buffalo wallow (no buffalo). We got home about dinner time on Saturday.

Last minute life-style......

Instead of our normal plan-every-detail approach to life we are taking a laid back approach to this family vacation. Today we started off with haircuts, instead of packing. Then we moved in to picking Sid's car up from the shop (brake job), Kindermusik, Sheela's soccer game and then of course Sunil's soccer game. It was our turn to bring snack, cut plums and fresh grapes, juice boxes and mini-oreos for after the game. Sid went off to do a wine tasting and I brought the kids home to bake cookies and pack. Well Zach came over to play for awhile, then in a stroke of brilliance I sent all three of them off to Zach's house. Sunil came back a short time later, just as Ronnie Sue stopped by to see Sheela. So they went to play with the cats as I burned the second batch of cookies because I was being hit up by a pint-sized salesman hawking violas (the flowers not the instruments). I have two flats coming at the end of the month. All of this to say, we haven't packed, we don't have reservations and we don't have a plan. We will pack all night (I guess) and then leave when the kids wake us up. One day's drive should see us to Marathon where we hope to find a motel for the night. The nest morning we should make Big Bend and find a camp ground early. We may be out of touch for a week... more or less.

Last minute life-style......

Instead of our normal plan-every-detail approach to life we are taking a laid back approach to this family vacation. Today we started off with haircuts, instead of packing. Then we moved in to picking Sid's car up from the shop (brake job), Kindermusik, Sheela's soccer game and then of course Sunil's soccer game. It was our turn to bring snack, cut plums and fresh grapes, juice boxes and mini-oreos for after the game. Sid went off to do a wine tasting and I brought the kids home to bake cookies and pack. Well Zach came over to play for awhile, then in a stroke of brilliance I sent all three of them off to Zach's house. Sunil came back a short time later, just as Ronnie Sue stopped by to see Sheela. So they went to play with the cats as I burned the second batch of cookies because I was being hit up by a pint-sized salesman hawking violas (the flowers not the instruments). I have two flats coming at the end of the month. All of this to say, we haven't packed, we don't have reservations and we don't have a plan. We will pack all night (I guess) and then leave when the kids wake us up. One day's drive should see us to Marathon where we hope to find a motel for the night. The nest morning we should make Big Bend and find a camp ground early. We may be out of touch for a week... more or less.