Family Invasion - Round One - Preparation

Mom and John are coming for their annual December visit tomorrow. This will be the 8th year in a row that we've been able to celebrate Sheela's birthday with them. They take us downtown for the night. We all go to dinner, then they take the kids back to the hotel while Sid and I go out. The next morning we get up early and grab breakfast in the Hotel and then walk down the street to watch the Neiman-Marcus/Adolphus Children's Parade. After the parade we will come back to the hotel for lunch and then head home after the crowds are gone. And this is just the beginning of a wonderful week of visiting.

Before this however comes the making of the house presentable routine. We were actually in pretty good shape this year as we'd just completed a rather thorough cleaning. However the family room was still torn up from the baseboard work, the stairs were covered in two weeks worth of things waiting to go upstairs, the game room was buried in clean, folded laundry that was never put away, the paperwork pile is out of control and the computers are only half reassembled. The majority of these chores were to have been completed last weekend at our leisure but I had a cold and slept through the weekend. Monday night Sid watched football and I finished another book (Bone Finder by Sarah Andrews). Last night we finally dove in. We accomplished a bunch but there is even more left to do and only one night to do it. Oh, and I started another book (Earth Colors also by Sarah Andrews). No pressure.

Half birthdays

Happy Half-birthday to Sunil! He is 4.5 today. The only celebration that really comes along with this is the marking of his height for posterity. He's grown roughly an inch since May.

Precious Elf Child

Sunil's school will be having their annual Holiday program on Dec 15th. I can't wait! This is Sunil's first time to do a performance of this kind. He gets to dress up in the "precious elf child" costume and sing a few songs with his classmates. Unfortunately the date that they've chosen is half way between Mom's visit and Dad's visit so both will miss out. I'm sure that there will be video later.

UIL - University Interscholastic League

Last month Sheela tried out for the UIL creative writing competition. She was not selected to represent her school but she did have a great time working on it. My favorite part was reading the stories she worked onat home for practice. I would draw four simple, unrelated pictures, then she would choose one of them to incorporate into her story. I think she was allowed 15 minutes to write the actual story.

Last night she brought home a permission slip to try out for another UIL competition. She didn't even know what the competition would be but it said UIL and she wanted in. It will be story telling this time. At this age they read each child a book and then they go in and retell the story to the judges one at a time. Sounds like fun to me. I can't wait for the practice sessions.

The darkside

I've pulled Sheela over to the darkside. She now spends most of her free time curled up in the glider in my room reading. I've moved from reading in the glider to reading on my bed to make room for her. We tried it the other way but then she fall would fall asleep in my bed and I would have to haul her out. I enjoy having someone to read with, it makes me feel less antisocial. At the same time though I know that reading gets in the way of almost every normal activity. There are mornings were I have to fight the impulse to call in sick so I can stay home and finish a book... or get a head start on the next one. There have been many nights where I left a mess in the kitchen while I run upstairs to change. Instead I pick up a book and never come back down. Bills don't get paid, children don't get feed, laundry doesn't get put away, phone calls don't get made. This isn't really the life I want for her, but I want to enjoy it for just a little while.

Playground

Here are some pictures of the cousins at the playground in Longview. I think I like this playground even better than the one up at Celebration Park by us. Maybe its the wood, maybe its the castles. By the way, that is Seema posing on the swing and Nita climbing the stairs.

Oh No! It's a Chevy.

Sid bought a car this weekend. It was time. The Explorer racked up nearly a 150,000 miles and was close to becoming a liability. The Trailblazer is a 2005 and has only 16,000 miles on it.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving

We've had a busy few days. Tuesday night Jasmine spent the night and Globix Trading through together an impromptu Holiday Party (we all went out for Greek food). Wednesday I took a day off from work and took the kids ice skating. It was Sunil's first time on the ice. He is such a good sport. He did great. He never quite got the hang of skating alone but he did well with the wall or holding my hand.

Wednesday night we went up to visit Cindy and Mack. We haven't seen much of them lately. It was good to catch up. We also watched War of the Worlds, which was a massive waste of time.

Thursday morning we drove over to Longview, TX to visit Sid's sister, Sushama, and her family. They've been in the new house for six months and this is the first time we've been here. We need to do better about coming to visit. They are only two hours away and we have great time. We are still in Longview today (Friday) but we will drive home this evening. I have some pictures of the kids that I'll post when we get back home.

Right now we are off to a car dealership, Sid has his eye on a car there that he is trying to talk me into... It would work better if he was talking me in to a new car for me, but he really does need a new car more than I do.

The Five Whys

First we had All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten which helped explain how to get along with others. Now we have the principle of the Five Whys which explains how to find out what really went wrong on the production floor. You don't ask why the error happened, accept the answer, fix the problem and move on. You ask why, then you ask why again, and again, and again and again. The problem needs to be addressed at least five layers deep. Kids have know how to employ this technique since the beginning of the spoken word.

"Why can't I have candy for dinner?"
"It's not healthy"
"Why isn't it healthy today, I had some last night?"
"Last night you had a small piece after dinner."
"Why does it matter if I have it first or last?"
"It lacks the nutritional content of meat and vegetables. You need to eat those first so that you aren't too full to eat them later."
"Why do I need nutritional content?"
"You need the vitamins and minerals to grow strong and healthy"
"Why can't I have a vitamin pill with my chocolate?"
"You are right, eat the chocolate, take the vitamin and bring some for me too." okay, this isn't quite the same thing as getting to the root of the problem but it does illustrate the benefits of a persistent nature.

By the way if you haven't read Robert Fulghum's books you should.

And even more team pictures

More team pictures

Can you tell that these were taken 10 minutes after sunrise? The Panthers ended their season 9-2-1.

End of season party - Hot Wheels

The boys had their party last night (even though we still have one game left to play). We celebrated with all-you-can-eat pizza at a place called Double Dave's. We followed that up with a brief award ceremony. Each boy earned a trophy, we gave "coach" caps and whistles to the coaches, and I was given a beautiful picture frame and bath oils. Then we had cake and let the boys run amuck. It was quick, it was easy and the boys were proud.

Bye-bye Bello

It's been a fun couple of months and I'm going to miss Bello more than I will the kittens but I'm pleased to say that Bello has found a new home. She went to live with my friend Patti. I hope that this will work out well for both of them.

Power tools

Sid and the kids spent some time this past weekend trimming out the family room (old garage). We still don't have it entirely done but now that the weather is cold we are getting there.

Working with clay

I have a friend who is an artist that works with clay. On a whim she gave Sheela a pack (well two packs now) of clay that can be set by baking to make all sorts of neat stuff. Sheela finally got to work with it last night. She covered a basic ball point pen in yellow decorated with red, blue and purple dots.

Unguarded fruit

While I was out having a nice lunch today, my cube neighbor Leo defaced (or faced) my unguarded clementine.

Surgery today

Bello was packed off to the vet this morning. She received a full round of shots, as I type she is being spayed, she also has an ear infection. She will come home tonight and spend a few days recovering. Hopefully during those few days the weather will warm up a little bit and she wont mind going back out. I forced her to go out for a few minutes this morning and she wasn't too happy about it. The wind chill was in the upper 20s.

A Gala Affair - 2005

Aren't we cute?

Music Award

Sheela received the second grade girl's music award for the grading period. She isn't sure what the overall criteria is for winning the award but she is pleased and proud just the same. So are we.

Bye-bye Adventure

The last of the kittens went to her permanent home last night. A guy from work and his family stopped over last night and took Adventure home with them. Which leads us to the big questions.... why is bello still locked in the bedroom? It was a nice comfy 70+ degrees this morning. The temperature now is 50-ish. We have a freeze warning for tonight. When Texas weather changes it does it all at once. I couldn't convince the kids that she needed to go back out yet.