Feeding Wild Animals…. March 31, 2008

and no, I’m not talking about Jason and the girls!  We went to San Antonio this past week for our Spring Break.  Since DH missed all of the major holidays and birthdays last year, we decided to splurge on Spring Break this year and really have a good time.  And that we did.  In advance, please forgive me if this runs long….it may help some of you sleep.

On Monday morning we left and headed to San Antonio. Not a bad trip other than the fact that the 20 month old did not sleep a wink on the entire 8 hour trip.  We just ate some FABULOUS Mexican food for dinner and settled in to our hotel room.

On Tuesday, we went to the Alamo.  Jackie thought it was interesting and enjoyed learning about life during the 1800s. Katey declared that it was boring, but I have to say, she was a good sport about it.  I promised her that we would get to see Shamu on Wednesday and so she was patient.  We walked through the Riverwalk and had lunch….that place is not built for strollers (lesson learned), got some ice cream and headed by La Villita…although we didn’t stop.  The afternoon was filled with naps (for those under 2), swimming in the hotel pool, dinner at PF Changs and a little bit of shopping…not too much, but we like to check out stores we can’t get locally.  We went and got our dessert at Whole Foods.  ((sigh)) I think that store ranks number 2 on the World’s Best Stores list…..only after Ikea.

On Wednesday, we got up and got moving early.  We ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and rushed across town to Sea World.  Our handy GPS led us right to the front gate without a hesistation or a missed turn. Right to the front gate…that was closed!!!!  CLOSED!!!!  I could not believe it…Sea World was closed until Friday.  But we were supposed to leave town on Friday (says the mommy in a panicked voice)!  I don’t remember seeing that ANYWHERE on the website when I filled out the form for our tickets or treid to make a reservation to dine with Shamu!  That’s a big ‘ole crap-ola in the “mommy-of-the-year” department.  So we changed our plans and decided to stay an extra day. We had to.  It was the only thing Katey was really looking forward to on the entire trip.  Since Sea World was a bust, we hunted down a cross stitch store for me. Might as well make the best of a bad situation I say! Whenever I go to different places, I like to check out the stores to see that they have. Sometimes you can find some great patterns by local artists or learn a new technique.  We ate lunch and went to the hotel for a nap, followed by lots of pool time and a dinner delivered to our door by the wonderful pizza guy.  The girls were pretty tired and we didn’t think they would have the patience to sit in a restaurant.

On Thursday we did our morning routine and went to the Witte Museum. Jason and the big girls went in and checked it out while I stayed in the van with a sleeping Izzy.  Then we were kind of at a loss as to what to do next, when I happened to get  a call from Aunt LeAnn. She suggested we go to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.  Said her kids loved it and still talk about it.  And I have to admit, it was a HIT!  We got to feed all kinds of animals…zebras, ostrich, emu, antelope, reindeer and some other sort of ram.  We had a good time and enjoyed it. I was surprised how brave the girls were with letting the animals eat out of their hands.   We were singing the Wiggles Emu song and moving our arms and hands appropriately and Izzy was moving her hands and arms like they do for the song…it was too cute.  We also got to see baby (I mean, teeny tiny) ring tail lemurs.  Izzy’s favorite was the goats in the petting “zoo”. She just chased the little ones around pointing and saying “baby….baby….baby”.  Now that I think about it, I have to remember to wash everyone’s shoes!

 So finally, Friday rolls around and its Sea World day.  We do the morning routine, but this time we have to pack up all of our stuff too because our hotel didn’t have room for us to stay one more night.  I guess it was fine in the end since it looked like the hotel had been invaded by middle school age children by Friday morning.  We do a full day at Sea World and there was still so much we did not get done.  The park hours were short that day, but we were all so exhausted by the afternoon that it didn’t make much difference.  We managed to feed some seals and sea lions and we had awesome seats for the Orca show.  We got to talk to one of the trainers after the show and Katey has since declared she wants to be an animal trainer when she grows up.  Jason and the big girls went on the Rio Loco ride and Jackie managed to get totally soaked….I think her tennis shoes are still wet.

Saturday we packed up the van again and headed home with a stop at the outlet stores in San Marcos. We all need to be responsible citizens and do our part for the economy….and we did ours….and maybe made up for a couple of other families too.  After a long ride…the kids finally fell asleep in the back….some rain in the last couple of hours…we finally made it home.

Today we got to do the fun job of unpacking, running to the store to get bread and milk and I started on the mountain of laundry that needs to be done.  Tomorrow we head back to school….its going to be rough getting up in the morning!

Family News….. March 24, 2008

We have a couple of family things to update…

Jackie has been selected to be on the pre-team for gymnastics. They will practice and master skills through the summer and then they will make selections for the competition team . If she is selected for the team, she will start competing in Oct/Nov and will go to 4 or 5 meets over the year. I am so proud of her and happy for her.  I’m just not sure I’m ready to watch her go over a vault.  yikes!

We also found out last week that Katey will need to have her tonsils and adenoids removed at the beginning of the summer. She does not fit the “must” criteria, but she falls in to several of the “should” criteria—strep on a regular basis, ear infections, inflammation in the nose that’s not related to allergies, bad breath and snoring.  From the research I have done, there could also be a connection to the bed wetting and the snoring.  I think the snoring/mouth breathing is also the reason for the constant fatigue.  I have never met a 5 year old who could sleep like she does and then be too tired to stand up to get her hair done.  We still need to get a hearing test done and we will probably get a 2nd opinion (I don’t like putting my kid under general anesthesia) and then we will go from there.

 Oh my goodness…I have eaten entirely too much today. We went to a neighbors home for brunch after Mass and while the kids played and watched a movie, the adults talked….and munched….and munched….and munched.  I am still full…I think if I even attempted to put my intake on the WW pointstracker it would explode!  When we get back from vacation, I will have to tighten back down and work on my goal.  I need to lose more weight…not because of vanity but because I have a strong family history of health problems that could probably be avoided if I can just try to take good care of my body.  The good news is that I did run a bit this past week and my hips and knees felt really good.  That wasn’t happening for a while and I’m ready to make use of some new running stuff I got last weekend in Dallas.

 The good news is that we leave in the morning for San Antonio for the week. I’m looking forward to spending some time as a family and have a good time.  We haven’t had a vacation as a family in a while.   I will try to take photos and put them on the blog….still working on that skill! 

5th Anniversary of Iraq War March 19, 2008

Wow! It’s only been a few days and I have so much rolling around in my head that I dont’ know where to start.

The most important is that many people may not know that today is the 5th anniversary of our most recent Operations in Iraq.  Of course, I ran across someone a couple of weeks ago who didn’t realize we haven’t truly left since 1991, but that’s another blog for another time.  I am currently reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns”…its about Afghanistan, but the violence and chaos that has occurred in that country since 1979, plays such an important role in the novel that I would consider it another, possibly main, character.  And then I think that our country, a country I am proud of and I am proud to have defended, is doing the same thing to Iraq. (Note: I didn’t say I was proud of my government!) I feel mostly for those families who are just trying to make it.  They don’t cause problems, they aren’t violent, they just want to go to the store and get milk and bread and can’t.  They just want to go back to their factories or offices to work and they can’t. They just want to get back to the daily routine of life and they can’t.  I know there are some out there who will defend the war and say that the US is trying to make it better, but the fact of the matter….the reality of the situation is that we are not.  With that said….please make sure you say a prayer, hold the hand, make a meal or contact anyone you know whose life has been touched directly by this war.  And if you feel like doing more than that, here is a good place to start.

I heart Jon Stewart March 14, 2008

Jon Stewart was interviewing Dana Perino on The Daily Show tonight.  They were having a conversation about the last 9 months of the Bush Presidency.

Please forgive me if this is not exact quotes:

Jon Stewart: So is this like a sprint to the finish?

Dana Perino: Yes, he’s making some of his staff very tired.

Jon Stewart: Could you get him to run any faster?

At this point I had to pick myself up from the floor I laughed so hard…..LOVE IT!

Making a family March 12, 2008

I sometimes get weird looks from people when I mention that I don’t talk to most of my extended family.  I just say that I stay away from them…they live a life I’m not interested in and I want to keep my children from it.  Occasionally I will make a crack about someone’s mental instability.  They think I’m joking…if only they knew. Some folks look at me like I’m just a snob.  That I must think I’m better than my family.

Well, I don’t. I don’t care what brand of clothes people wear…what kind of car they drive…what food they eat..whether their house has bricks or wheels.  That’s all superficial stuff.  What I do care about is how they treat other people.  Do they have a respect for fellow man? Do they go through their day with a spirit of love and generosity?Do they work hard?  Are they doing their best?

So when my extended family gets wrapped up in something like this. I just choose to stay away.  Its not the lifestyle I choose to be associated with. Its not the lifestyle I want my children to be associated with.  I hope that people will understand when someone chooses to separate from dysfunction rather than to stay a part of it.

It is hard though. I think there is something genetic in us humans that makes us want to be a part of our “clan”.  It makes us wish we could have a family that would make the Cleaver’s look like scoundrels.  I guess in some cases, it’s just not to be.  So I go forth and create a “family” of my own.  They may not be genetically linked to me, they may have their own quirky “issues” to deal with, but they love and they respect and they work hard and they “do their best”….and since that’s all I have to give, that’s all I can ask.