All posts for the month September, 2008

My Daughter, The Nun

I have come to the conclusion that my youngest daughter is in line to become a nun.

This year at my daughter’s school they are required to do 20 hours of service for their religion class. A group of the 4th grader girls got together on their own and decided to go visit a nursing home. They got a teacher to sponsor them for this and asked for parents to chaperon them. So yesterday after school we went to a nursing home. The girls sang a bunch of Halloween songs and played a game of catch with the residents using balloons. Most of the girls were very timid and my youngest is usually very shy. I was shocked yesterday when she just took right to the residents. She had a blast with them and even asked me when she can go back.

This is just one example of why I think she is going to be a nun. There are many more!

This is a photo of a cross that she made from part of our old fence last year. It hangs in my bedroom.

She takes her Rosary beads with her every time we go to church and she says the Rosary. Now mind you, I never new how to do the Rosary until she taught me how!

Maybe she will not choose to become a nun, maybe she will just play one on TV instead! 

1 Comment
by Heather on September 30, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 30, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/my-daughter-the-nun/

Follow That Van!

Due to Hurricane Ike we have been without satellite tv for two weeks now. The kids and I have come to terms with it and we have been hitting our local library to checkout tons of movies. My husband on the other hand has not quite comes to terms with it yet.

Friday afternoon he called me to let me know that the satellite company would be out this coming up Friday. I thought this was great information because we had not heard from the satellite company since we called two weeks ago. This was the conversation I had with my husband:

Me – “Great the satellite company finally called you!”
Hubby – “No they did not.”
Me – “Well at least you finally got a hold of someone on the phone.”
Hubby – “No I didn’t.”
Me – “Well how the hell do you know they will be out next Friday then?”
Hubby – “I followed one of their repair trucks.”

Yeah you read that right! My husband followed a repair truck for 30 minutes until the truck pulled into a driveway. This poor satellite repairmen must have thought my husband was crazy! Actually I am starting to wonder if he is crazy! The repairman was nice enough to call the main company and finally got us on a list to be repaired!

Just when I was starting to enjoy life without Hannah Montana!

1 Comment
by Heather on September 29, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 29, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/follow-that-van/

Oops, She Did It Again!

In my house we have rules. Sometimes in my house, my kids do not like to follow my rules. I don’t think they have quite come to terms with the fact if you break the law, the law will break you!

We have a phone policy in my house. It is not all that hard to follow. My husband works from home so we keep our land line as a business phone. I have told my 16 year old that her friends may call my cell phone to reach her. Then if the land line is free she can call them back on that phone. Her friends are not to call the land line number.

Two weeks ago my dear little sweet 16 year old’s boyfriend called the land line. O.K., fine, so Baby Huey can’t grasp the phone rules. I grounded my daughter from the phones for 2 days and I had her call her boyfriend and tell him why she got grounded. Not too bad of a punishment, at least not to me.

The next day I pick up the land line to make a phone call and my dear little sweet 16 year old is on the line talking to her best friend. Busted! Her original punishment was revised from 2 days to 1 week.

Two days into the new sentencing she got busted again. This time she got busted really good. I went to bed around 11 pm one night and I could not go to sleep. I was just laying in my bed when I heard the squeak of one of our stairs. I knew someone was up but I just stayed in bed. About 5 minutes later I got out of bed and went into the kitchen where I noticed the portable phone was missing. Hmmm, did a little mouse take it? I think not it must be the big rat I call my 16 year old daughter! I quietly walked upstairs into my husbands office and picked up the phone in there. I hear Baby Huey ask if my daughter can talk. I piped in “No she can not! If I were you I would not call her for a very long time!” I hung up the phone and went in to my daughter’s room. I told her she would have to wait for her punishment until morning after I had a talk with her dad.

The next morning I talked to my husband and we decided that we would extend her sentencing of no phone to a full month and also take away her computer access. I put up on her My Space (I have her password) that she was grounded from the phone and the computer for a month.

Right now we are in week 2 of the new sentencing and truth be told, I can’t wait for her to go back to school next week. Since she can’t talk to her best friend or Baby Huey she is just plain driving me nuts! But I will not give in! I will stay strong!

Because of all the Baby Huey references I could not resist this!

3 Comments
by Heather on September 27, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 27, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/oops-she-did-it-again/

Where In The World…Canterbury Shaker Village

Canterbury Shaker Village
Canterbury, New Hampshire

Canterbury Shaker Village can be found on Wikipedia.

On a personal note:I lived in New Hampshire for 3 years in my early twenties. I used to pass this village all the time on the way up to my grandmother’s house. Unfortunately I never stopped by this place. My mom and her friend went here once and my mother loved it. She said it was a very calming place.

5 Comments
by Heather on September 26, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 26, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/where-in-the-world-6/

Video Of The Week

This is my favorite Paul McCartney song.

This was actually the first album I bought with my own money! I had pretty good taste in music for a 12 year old.

1 Comment
by Heather on September 25, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 25, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/video-of-the-week-6/

Question Of The Week

Question of the week: Do you just give your children an allowance or do you make them earn it?

When I was growing up we were just given an allowance. My mom did all of the cleaning but we did have chores like setting the table at night. But my mom always had to tell us to do it.

In my house I make my kids earn their allowance. They have a chart that is posted on the fridge with the jobs they are expected to do and the dollar amount of each job. For example my oldest daughter earns $2 for cleaning the upstairs bathroom. If I have to tell her to clean her bathroom $1 is deducted from her allowance.

3 Comments
by Heather on September 24, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 24, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/question-of-the-week-4/

Hurricane Ike Lingo

I know everyone is probably sick and tired of hearing about Hurricane Ike, I know I am. But I could not resist writing this post, hopefully it will be the last one for Hurricane Ike!

Over the past 2 weeks we Texans have learned some new lingo thanks to Hurricane Ike:

  • Hunker Down – To Shelter In Place. To get ready for the upcoming storm.
  • POD – Point Of Distribution. This is where FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) hands out ice, MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and water.
  • ICE – In Case of Emergency. It is a good idea to put in the word ICE in your cell phone with the phone number of somebody you think would  actually help you in an emergency.
  • Generator Fatigue – This is when you are tired of hearing running generators all night long.
  • Generator Envy – This is when you are envious of your neighbors generator.
  • Generator Snob – This is the neighbor who has a generator but will not let other people use it. * I was not a Generator Snob, I shared my generator with the neighbors I liked!

I have also learned a lot from Hurricane Ike:

2 Comments
by Heather on September 23, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 23, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/hurricane-ike-lingo/

I Am Cool!

This past week has been very interesting around my neighborhood. Due to Hurricane Ike the public schools don’t go back until September 29th. My youngest daughter, who goes to a private school,went back this Monday the 22nd. The kids are pretty much getting very bored!

The kids are having a hard time dealing with the fact that they don’t have t.v. as they know it. The cable is out and for those of us that have satellite, our dishes are turned just enough not to receive a signal! They can’t believe they only have the local channels to watch. Especially when all the local channels are showing is the news. The horror!

My youngest daughter spent her week off from school playing with her friend across the street from us. They played outside with chalk or just ran around being crazy. Good clean simple fun!

My oldest daughter was hanging out, they don’t play when they are 16, with a couple of girls in our neighborhood. One of the girls found out that my daughter has a guitar. This girl has just started playing the guitar 6 months ago and she is pretty good. My daughter has had her guitar for 2 years and I never hear her play it. That changed last week. This girl decided to try and teach my daughter how to play. They were sitting outside on our patio playing the guitar when I asked if they wanted to borrow my guitar. Then they borrowed a song book that I had. So now they are both playing guitar on the patio. I overheard my daughter’s friend tell her that I am cool! I know it won’t last for long but I heard it with my own ears!

Just to note, I do not play the guitar very well. I am a jack of all trades and a master of none! Now my daughter keeps asking me for help on the guitar. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing!

1 Comment
by Heather on September 23, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 23, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/i-am-cool/

Where In The World…Emerald Bay State Park

Emerald Bay State Park, Lake Tahoe, California

Vikingsholm.jpgVikingsholm Castle

Emerald Bay can be found on Wikipedia.

On a personal note: I went to Lake Tahoe in 1999. I was seven months pregnant with my youngest daughter. I fell in love with this beautiful place. The trail from the parking lot down to the house is very steep and is 1 mile long. The walk back up to the parking lot felt like it was 10 miles!

1 Comment
by Heather on September 19, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 19, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/where-in-the-world-5/

In The Eyes Of A Child

Last Friday, September 12th, before the hurricane hit we decided to go out to eat at a local restaurant before having to be stuck in the house for who knows how long. We were sitting at the table talking about how the people on the west end of Galveston had a mandatory evacuation. My 9 year old daughter was sitting at the table drawing on the back of a menu just listening to us.

This is what she drew:

The blue is not sky but it is water. This picture has been on my fridge since we got home that night.

3 Comments
by Heather on September 18, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 18, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/in-the-eyes-of-a-child/

Video Of The Week

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by Heather on September 18, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 18, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/video-of-the-week-5/

Question Of The Week

Question of the Week: Should people be dependant on the government after a natural disaster? (I hope I worded that right!)

I live south of Houston and we were in the direct path of Ike. I am very fortunate not to have lost anything and we are pretty much back to normal in my neighborhood. They are not back to normal in the subdivision right in front of us.

I keep hearing a lot of people saying that the government is not working fast enough. I watched the weather and figured out for myself that we were not looking very good the Monday before it hit us. I went to the store and stocked up on food that was non-perishable. Sorry I did not stock my freezer or my fridge. I bought enough water to last us for a week. I filled our tubs up with water before the storm. We filled up our cars with gas. Knowing that we live in a hurricane area we bought a generator years ago when we had some extra money. Am I wrong in thinking that you should take care of yourself just a little bit?

I know there are people that have no homes and even if they did prepare it was all for nothing. Those people need help. I am talking about the people complaining that there is not enough ice to save the food in their fridges and freezers.

Also I would like to know, since all we see here right now is local news, is how are we looking to the rest of the country?

2 Comments
by Heather on September 17, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 17, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/question-of-the-week-3/

Hurricane Ike

Well I survived Hurricane Ike. I think that FEMA should hand out t-shirts that say “I Survived Hurricane Ike ’08”.

OK, I will try to put my sarcasm aside for a minute. Please note that I said try!

First of all, my family is truly blessed. We made it through safe and sound. We have only minor roof damage, minor fence damage, we lost a live oak tree we just planted in our backyard and our satellite dish got turned a little and lost 2 of it’s pick-ups.

I live in the area where the red X is.

We were well prepared for this storm. We had all 3 of our vehicles gassed up. We had a generator, plenty of water and non-perishable food. I filled the tub up with water and put a bucket next to it so we could flush the toilet when needed. We turned our bedroom closet into a bunker in case of a tornado. We even put 4 baseball helmets in there “just in case!” We turned off our gas and our water at the house just before the storm hit. You might even say we were over prepared if there is such a thing. 

Our house is about 7 years old and is built to survive hurricane force winds. Not one single window rattled through the entire hurricane. I was very impressed. I would not stay for anything bigger than this hurricane, but I actually felt safe in this house during a category 2 storm.

Now for just a little recap of the storm:

  • Friday night we started getting tropical storm strength winds around 6pm.
  • I put both of my girls to bed around 9pm. My youngest went to sleep my oldest did not.
  • We lost our power at 10pm.
  • My husband fell asleep, passed out, on the couch around 11pm.
  • At 11pm or so we were getting hammered by hurricane strength winds.
  • My oldest daughter and I listened to our radios and made fun of the reporters all night.
  • At 2am we thought we heard what sounded like a tornado so I woke up my husband and my youngest daughter and we moved into our closet.
  • At 2:05am both my husband and my youngest daughter went back to sleep in the closet.
  • At 2:30 we kept waiting for a break with the eye coming but we never got it. It went just east of us by 5 miles.
  • At 3am my oldest daughter finally fell asleep in the closet.
  • At 3am I grabbed my daughter’s Game Boy and played Mario Kart while listening to my radio.
  • At 5am my husband got off the floor in our closet and moved to our bed. I swear he was sleep walking!
  • At 6am both of my daughters woke up.
  • At 6am the winds were not as strong so we left the closet.
  • I got up and walked around the house and heard a dripping noise coming from upstairs. Our roof was leaking so I grabbed as many pots as I could and put them around to save the carpet.
  • At 7am my husband woke up and asked my why I hadn’t woke him up. I figured we made it this far so I did not kill him! (Just to note I tried at least 5 times to wake him up!)
  • The winds and the rain finally stopped around 9am.
  • After the storm we got our generator going and plugged in the fridge, the TV, and 2 fans. I told our neighbors we had it and they came by and plugged in their phones when needed.
  • Our water came back on Saturday afternoon with full pressure.
  • At 7pm Saturday night I finally went to sleep after having been up for 36 hours!
  • We finally got our power back on Sunday night.

My heart goes out to everyone who were not as lucky as we were.

*Times are not 100% accurate!

3 Comments
by Heather on September 15, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 15, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/hurricane-ike/

Where In The World…Carlsbad Caverns National Park

The forces of water decorated the cave in an almost endless array of spectacular limestone formations like this column and array of stalactites.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

The history of Carlsbad Caverns can be found on Wikipedia.

On a personal note: I went to Carlsbad Caverns when I was about 9 years old. I remember it being a long hike down to the bottom of the cavern and it got very cold! At sunset we sat at the entrance to the cave and watched hundreds of bats fly out of the cavern and over our heads. I even had the pleasure of having one of the bats hit my head! Yes I screamed!

1 Comment
by Heather on September 12, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 12, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/where-in-the-world-4/

Video Of The Week

With Hurricane Ike hitting the Texas coast this weekend I couldn’t resist this video! 🙂

Hurricane Update 9-11-08 10:00 am: We are going to be hit pretty hard by Hurricane Ike. They are calling for winds of 110 mph and a 15 foot storm surge. I don’t have to worry to much about the storm surge but the winds will be a blowing! We will probably be without electricity when it is done blowing through here. But just like Arnold says “I’ll be back!”

5 Comments
by Heather on September 11, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 11, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/video-of-the-week-4/

Question Of The Week

Question of the Week: At what age should you let your kids get their driver’s license?

 

I think it is up to each parent to decide when their kid is ready to drive. My oldest daughter turned 16 over the summer and she thinks just because you hit the big 16 you are automatically entitled to get your driver’s license. Being the mean parents that we are, we told her she is not really ready for the responsibility of driving. We told her she needs to prove that she is responsible by getting better grades this year, which means turning in assignments and managing to study on her own. We have seen a lot of improvement on her side and we will probably let her take driver’s education next summer. That will put her at being 17 when she gets her license.

7 Comments
by Heather on September 10, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 10, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/question-of-the-week-2/

Google Image MeMe

The rules are:
a) answer the question below, do a Google Image search with your answer, take a picture from the 1st page of results, do it with minimal words of explanation; and
b) tag 5 people to do the same once you’ve finished answering every question.

here we go… 

 

1. The age you’ll be on your next birthday:

 I am still climbing up the hill! 

2. Place you want to travel to:

 Ireland 

3. Your favorite place:

 The ocean 

4. Your favorite food:

 Lasagna 

5. Your favorite pet:

 Our turtle is great! No noise, not much of a mess and I never have to walk him!

 6. Favorite color combination:

 Purple and Red 

7. Favorite piece of clothing

 My brother’s Navy boot-camp sweatshirt that I stole from him, I mean borrowed!

 8. Your all time favorite song:

 We sang this song in High School and I have loved it ever since.

 9. Favorite TV show:

 7 PM

 Brothers and Sisters

10. First name of your significant other/crush:

 Oh, I wish! 

11. Which town do you live in:

 

Somewhere deep in the Heart of Texas. 

12. Your screen name/nickname:

 

That’s me! 

13. Your first job: 

 I worked in the JSC Nasa gift shop. 

14. Your dream job:

When I figure it out I will start doing it. 

15. One bad habit that you have:

 I quit smoking and drinking, give me a break! 

16. Worst fear:

 Bridges 

17: Things you’d like to do before you die:

Make the world a little happier

18. The 1st thing you’ll buy if you get $1,000,000:

An old house in Galveston, although I think I will pass on this one! 

19. Your husband/wife

 Best Friend 

20. What present would you like for your next birthday?

 OK, I’ll take any old maid but they would be nice!

 

Tag your it! Unless you don’t want to be it!

1 Comment
by Heather on September 9, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 9, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/google-image-meme/

Man, I’ve Been Busy!

I have been on the go for a while now it seems! It is all good stuff don’t get me wrong. I always think that when the kids go back to school I will get to slow down a little. As usual I am wrong!

My youngest daughter goes to a Catholic School so in order to volunteer they require that you take a class and have a background check done. This year I have finally decided to bite the bullet and go do it. I went and took the class last Thursday night and my background check should come back within a month. Hopefully it will come back all squeaky clean! Just to note: I am a goody two shoes and I have not even had a parking ticket in my lifetime, knock on wood! I thought it was funny because the lady who taught the class used to be one of our High School Spanish teachers. I of course went up and talked to her. She was best friends with my French teacher so I got to find out a lot about her. I thought it was really funny when we had to fill out a survey about the class and we had to put the lady’s name down I put down Mrs. ____ I just couldn’t bring myself to put down her first name! 

Last Friday my husband and I took our boat out for the day. It is great to be able to drop the kids off at school and dart on down to take the boat out.

Boat5

This is our boat sitting in the drive-way of the guy we bought it from last November.

Last Friday we had quite an adventure on the boat. We saw a dolphin, I had a blast catching Mackerel and we even managed to catch 2 Ribbon Fish. Man are they evil looking!

This is one of the Ribbon Fish we caught.

Here is a another picture of what a Ribbon Fish looks like…see evil looking!

 Sunday we took the boat out again but this time we took the kids with us. The weather has been great here in Texas, very low humidity and temperatures only in the lower 90’s. I caught more mackerel but this time I let both of my daughters reel them in. They only like to fish when the fish are biting! After we got done fishing we went “Cruising” around a place called The Kemah Boardwalk. The girls think they are hot stuff when we go through there.

This week it looks like we will be keeping an eye on Hurricane Ike. I hope we can keep up our good luck and it will go someplace else. I will be keeping my fingers crossed!

To top off my weekend my youngest daughter told me this: “Mom, I just noticed your boobs are finally bigger than your stomach!” Man you gotta love kids!

4 Comments
by Heather on September 8, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 8, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/man-ive-been-busy/

Where In The World…Mesa Verde National Park

MesaVerdeNationalParkCliffPalace.jpg

 Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.

Mesa Verde can be found on Wikipedia.

On a personal note: I went to Mesa Verde when I was about 13. I found all of the history there very interesting. I loved the fact that you could actually walk around the sites. It was like walking through history.

3 Comments
by Heather on September 5, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 5, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/where-in-the-world-3/

Video Of The Week

I think this is where I learned how to cook! 🙂

1 Comment
by Heather on September 4, 2008  •  Permalink
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Posted by Heather on September 4, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/video-of-the-week-3/

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