Girls' Night Out

Earlier this week, I got together with some girlfriends for a girls' night out. They are all wives of anesthesiologists, nurses, or wives of nurses, so all work-related friends, and we have a good time together. We went to Pearl Street without any real plan, immediately saw a wine and chocolate tasting bar, and decided that was a good place to start! They gave us three wine and chocolate pairings for $5 or $6. Seemed like a pretty good deal; it was all yummy. Then, as we wandered out to window shop, we encountered my friend Bobbie, who was there for a photography workshop (see his blog - he got some great shots of brides and grooms). We borrowed him from his workshop for a few minutes to photograph us.




In the back are Debbie, Stephanie, and me. Karen and Trisha are in front. As we left the flowers, we spotted a cool old red truck that we thought would make a great background for photos. The driver happened to walk up at the same time we did, but he was kind enough to let us take a few shots before he drove away.

Later in the evening, we ran into our personal photographer again, and he took some cool shots in an alley. The whistles were a part of a girls' night out survival kit that Debbie put together for us. It was a pretty silly evening, all around. Thanks for a fun time, ladies!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday is actually tomorrow, but I celebrated with my family this evening. John picked up the kids from school, so I had time to get a massage. :) Then we all went out to dinner at P.F. Chang's. John carried in a huge covered turkey roaster to the restaurant; the entire staff was speculating on what was inside. After a wonderful meal, the waiters and I finally got to see . . . this lovely cake that John and the kids made for me:

I had made zucchini bread yesterday, so the kids thought zucchini cake would be a good idea. John took one of the loaves and sliced it to add the layers of cream cheese icing in the middle. Then the kids put all the yummy stuff on top: pecans, crushed peppermint, sprinkles, icing gel, twizzlers, and peanut butter swirl chocolate chips! I've never seen a more beautiful cake; I don't think any more love could have fit on the top! :)

Thank you, dear family, for a wonderful birthday!

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. Both kids are attending a public charter school, which is entirely new to us. Education has been a long and winding road for us so far. I want my kids to be in the best possible school for their education, social development and mental well-being, but I don't think it's necessarily good to be at a different school every year, constantly searching for greener pastures. That said, the following report will sound as if that's exactly what we've done.

When we lived in Texas, both kids attended a private pre-school which we loved. They were there for 2 1/2 years. That last semester, Cam was in preK. When we moved to Colorado in January 2006, we decided to enroll him in our local Kindergarten. The cut-off date is later here. Cam has a September birthday, so he could not have been in Kindergarten in Texas, where the cut-off is Sept. 1, but here, the cut-off is Oct. 1. And we knew he was academically ready, so we decided to give it a shot and if necessary, he could repeat Kindergarten the following year. Well, that was NOT necessary. He was so bored. While the other kids were counting dots on cards, Campbell was multiplying them in his head and figuring out whether or not they were prime. When bored, Cam entertains himself (which usually involves silliness and distracting the rest of the class). While all of this was going on, I heard about this wonderful private school for gifted children in a nearby town. It would be expensive and a bit of a commute, but surely it would be worth it. . . Cam attended there for the next two years. Last year, he was in 2nd grade there and Helene did preK there. The preK program was wonderful. Helene learned a lot and loved it. Cam's experience, however, was rough. I have theories, but I don't know exactly what the problems were, so I'm not going to get into that. Basically, we decided the school was not the utopia it was made out to be, so why were we shelling out tens of thousands for it? Not to mention driving 30 minutes four times each day. . .

Right after spring break last year, I decided to try an experiment. I pulled Campbell out and home schooled him for April and May. I also kept Helene home one day each week, so I could see what it was like to home school both of them. I didn't want to commit to home schooling this year without first seeing what it was like. The home schooling was a wonderful experience. Campbell became a much calmer, happier person. I think school had been more stressful for him than I had ever realized. He works very well independently.

So why not continue home schooling? Well, that's complicated. There are pros and cons to it, and it's another one of those things about which I don't feel like elaborating right now. But it boils down to the fact that home schooling will be a last resort for me. We want to try one more option first - public school. It's free, it's close, and because our area has school choice, we could choose a school that seems flexible and like maybe they can accommodate my bright, silly children at least as well as the private school . . . without the expense.

So, today was the first day. The kids were a little nervous. Their mom was a basketcase. The teachers met their classes outside the school and walked the kids in. Sounds nice, right? Well, it was a bit chaotic. Every child in the school was there with one or two parents, so it was crowded. Not all of the teachers were holding signs, so it was really hard to find where to go. Helene's teacher is about as tall as the 4th graders, so she was hard to locate in the crowd. Campbell's teacher is out for the first 3 days of school because he's picking up his new baby adopted daughter in Guatemala. So, we had to find his substitute. I dropped him off with the sub, then walked Helene over to her class. She was pretty clingy, so I had to stay with her. Before his class walked into the building, Campbell came over to me and Helene in tears because he was nervous. So we walked Helene in together. She got really quiet once we were in her classroom, so I know she was nervous, but at least she went to her desk and quit clinging. So then I walked Cam up to his class, explained to the sub that he was a little nervous; she took over, and I kissed him goodbye. I then walked to the meeting room because the parents of Kindergartners were asked to meet with the principal. Turns out, she wanted to read us a story that all the K teachers were reading to the kids right then. It was a sweet, sappy story about a nervous little raccoon going off to his first day of Kindergarten. The mom kisses his palm and says, "If you miss me, hold it to your cheek and you will feel my kiss and know I love you," or something like that. Every single mom in the room was wiping her eyes by the end. (The dads seemed fine.) Why did she do that to us?! I thought I was fine after I got the kids safely to their classrooms, but that made me cry for the next hour!! Thankfully, I had some good friends, a mom, and a husband, who all talked to me and spent time with me and tried to distract me from my fears. Thank you!

Anyway, when I picked the kids up this afternoon (after waiting anxiously all day, hoping it wasn't a terrible first day for them), they were both very happy and said they had wonderful days. They said wearing uniforms was okay, and they chatted on and on about all the activities they did the first day and all of the classroom procedures. Whew! Sigh of relief.

I thought I had faithfully taken pictures of my kids by the front door every year on the first day of school. IF I actually did, they must not have been digital, or I filed them under some random name, because this is all I can find.

Campbell - Mother's Day Out - Sept. 2002

Campbell - Kindergarten - January 2006

Helene was not in any kind of preschool or Mother's Day Out at this point because I couldn't find anything for her when we moved to Colorado in the middle of a school year.  But she wanted to be in the picture.

Campbell - 3rd Grade - August 2008

Helene - Kindergarten - August 2008

Confessions of a Wannabe Repairwoman

I have to admit that my dishwasher repair job turned out not to be a permanent fix. After several loads, it is collecting water in the tub again. I checked the hose, and it seems to be clear. I took off the drain basket and all those filters again, and they are clear. Actually, they look great! I'm so glad I cleaned them, even if that wasn't the problem. And that black gunky hole was gray after I cleaned it out by hand. This is the first time I had seen it since running vinegar through the dishwasher, and now it's white! So, that's good. But I still don't know what the actual problem is. I looked up the manual online - totally unhelpful. It tells how to load the dishwasher and where to put the soap but has no drawings of the tub or anything that would help me out. I checked out a GE Dishwasher repair book from the library. It was published in 1985, but I thought it might be somewhat helpful. Well, it keeps referring to pre-1957 models and post-1957 models. I think mine is slightly different from the 1958 models!

I will decide at a later date whether to keep trying it on my own or call a plumber. For the time being, John and I have decided to hand wash. We've been reading a book on renewable energy, and we're trying to make our home more energy efficient. So, since hand washing uses no electricity and less water than a dishwasher, we're going to try it for a while.

I Fixed My Own Dishwasher!

Last week, I noticed that there were several inches of standing water in my dishwasher after running a load. I ran it again: same thing. So, I turned to the handy dandy Internet and found this wonderful site that a woman had written about how she fixed her dishwasher when she had the same problem. Basically, the problem was that the drain was clogged. But look at the drain basket towards the back in this first picture. I took this right after I used a wet vac to remove all the standing water. It's a little dirty from the standing water, but no obvious clogs, right?

Warning: If you have a weak stomach, do not view these pictures!!


This was what was right under the drain basket.

And this was under that second layer. YUCK!

And this is what the hole looks like with all the drain baskets removed. GROSS!

After I finished mucking it all out, I ran an empty load, with vinegar in the soap dispenser. I plan to do that periodically to keep it from getting to this point again. I also plan to thoroughly run the garbage disposal before ever starting the dishwasher because all of those pipes are connected. I rinse my dishes really well before putting them in the sink, so most of this gunk must have come from the sink disposal. Some of it seemed like soapy residue, as well. I guess the only thing to do about that is the vinegar trick and hope that keeps it from building up.

Outdoorsy Kids

I love that my kids are not wimps about touching creepy-crawly things. All of these pictures are from this past week.

Campbell with a baby toad he caught.

Helene with a grasshopper she caught. She named it Cricketa and built a habitat for her.

Helene at the Reservoir (holding up slimy green stuff, while wearing a cute dress, no less): "Daddy, is this algae?"

Gardens

The kids are getting a little tired of zucchini and squash, but John and I are loving it! Seriously, though, the kids do a much better job of eating their vegetables when the veggies have come from our own garden, especially if they've helped pick them. The sugar snap peas are nearing the end of their season. We've had a ton, but few have made it to the table. We usually just pick and eat them right from the vine. They make a great snack.





Last night, I made a penne carbonara and included yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and oregano from our garden. We also had a salad, including tomatoes and cucumber from the garden.





I think we'll have sweet corn ready soon. Anyone know how to tell when corn is ready to pick? We've never grown it before.





We have had such a good time with our garden that John decided to make another bed. He's been working on it this past week, whenever he's had time off. It needs a little more soil, but other than that, it's ready to go. Doesn't it look nice?! We hope to plant it soon with some fall/winter crops - lettuce, spinach, onions, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, kale. The kale seeds John got mostly for a joke because we know it's something you can grow in a winter garden, but I'm not sure that either of us have ever had it or would know what to do with it. We never grew any of these fall veggies successfully in Texas. I hope we fare better here.







The flower garden is doing well, too. It still doesn't completely camouflage the electrical boxes, but we're not really allowed to cover them up, so I'm doing the best I can to make them less obvious. I have no idea what half of the flowers in here are. I just picked things that looked pretty and were different heights because I wanted a crazy, cottage garden look. We're getting there. I do know that there's grapevine growing on the fence, hibiscus and sunflowers (not yet in bloom) in the back, hollyhocks, delphinium, lupines, columbines, lots of little poppies in the front, ... That's all I can remember right now.

Fishing at the Reservoir

John and one of his partners, Travis, were both on call all weekend, so they got today off. We met Travis and his wife, Trish, at the reservoir between our neighborhoods for some fishing today. Travis and Trish have a four-year-old son and one-year-old triplets. The son was in preschool this morning and the triplets with Trish's mother, so they got a well-deserved morning off. Hope we didn't ruin their peace by bringing our kids along! :) Actually, our kids were very calm and well-behaved this morning.

It was a perfect morning for being out. Partly cloudy and 75 degrees. Nice. Nobody caught any fish, but it was just nice being out by the water, and the kids enjoyed taking turns riding with Daddy in the kayak.




Campbell was fishing from the pier and his croc fell in the water. John and Helene steered under the pier and through the pillars to rescue the shoe. You can see Helene holding up the rescued croc in the picture below.Campbell is down at the end on the right. (FYI, one can usually click on an individual picture in my blog to see a bigger version.)

Blue Laws

For the first time in my life, I went into a liquor store on a Sunday. Colorado repealed its blue laws on July 1. Earlier today, I was walking from the grocery store to Blockbuster; I passed the liquor store and thought, "It would be nice to have some red wine tonight." Even though I knew about the change in policy, it was strange to see an OPEN sign in the window. I can't decide if I feel liberated or heathenish for buying wine on a Sunday. :)



I remember as a child seeing the toy and beer sections of the Safeway covered up with netting on Sundays. I read on Wikipedia that in Texas, blue laws prohibited selling housewares such as pots, pans, and washing machines on Sunday until 1985. Maybe toys were a part of that restriction?

And one time, when we lived in Houston, I added some beer to my grocery cart and tried to check out, not realizing that it was 11:30 on a Sunday. I did know that one couldn't buy alcohol until after noon on Sundays; I just didn't realize it wasn't noon yet!

I'm not sure what the law has been here about selling beer in grocery stores on Sunday (whether you could buy it after noon or not at all on Sundays). The beer in the grocery stores in Colorado is only 3.2%, so I've never bothered. There's always a liquor store right next door, where one can buy real beer.

When we lived in Tyler, we were in a dry county, so we had to drive across the county line to buy alcohol of any sort. There wasn't even beer or wine at the grocery store. I would make a trip once every few months and load up the back of the Suburban. (Am I starting to sound like I drink too much?) I heard there were restrictions on how much alcohol one could tote across the county line, but I never knew exactly what the restrictions were. Probably a good thing I never got pulled over!

I have no strong feelings on the new law, one way or the other; it's just a little strange to see the end of an era. (The end of the smoking-in-restaurants-era, on the other hand, was one I met with much rejoicing!)