Happy Birthday Dad

Dear Dad,

Tomorrow marks the day that you would have turned 85. If you are listening, I have a couple of things to tell you:

• First, foremost, and most importantly - God, I miss you. Every. Single. Day. I know you are with our heavenly Father, living the life you always dreamed of living, but it's not the same without you. And some days, I still spill over with sadness about it.
• Your grandson is really something special. He has your universal appeal and your heart. A little piece of you dwells within him and I see it all the time. Please watch over him and when I can't be with him, keep him in your loving care.
• Your granddaughter is my little Polish girl and you would love her. Love. Her. She is spunky and fun and giggly and bossy and she loves full body hugs. She's a real Guzewicz and I hope she stays that way. She loves her brother and they have so much fun together. It's really a beautiful thing. Please protect her as well, and when I can't be with her, keep her in your loving care.
• When I was at a golf tournament this past weekend, I shared the shuttle with a man who reminded me so much of you. He was with his own daughter who was taking him out for the day to the tournament. He was so happy to be getting out to see the "old guys" play and to walk the course. I told his daughter to treasure every day that she had with him, because she had no idea just how much she will miss him someday. He was precious and meeting him was the highlight of my day.

Have a wonderful birthday, Daddy. Until we meet again, I will count on the Holy Spirit, wisdom of the God Most High, Guiding Creator of power and love, to teach me to walk in the paths of knowledge, health, safety, and a powerful will to improve.

Love,

Joanne

Is it really tomorrow?

Will I really be walking my 4 1/2 year old into a big school tomorrow for his first day?

The funny thing is, I have no qualms about leaving him there. I got such good vibes on open school night and he is so excited about it that I think it will be fantastic.

I am just reflecting about all that it represents. It represents his first journey of what will be at least 14 years of schooling (if you include this one). It reminds me that he is eligible for this program because of the delays that he has, and it makes me prayerful that he will overcome them. It makes me realize that this is the first step in really letting go and letting him continue to grow into the wonderful kid that he is and is destined to be.

So I am allowing myself to indulge in him and all of the wonderful things about him. I laugh about Mallory and how badly she will want to go with her "bubbas" because she wants to do everything, absolutely everything, that he does. I look at the two of them and realize just how blessed we are. And I will be the one losing sleep tonight.

Meet the Teacher

What a great day we had. After school, we went to Lakeshore Elementary, where Christopher's pre-K program is and met his teacher, Mrs. Price. She was so nice and the classroom was so cute. Christopher LOVED it. Mallory did too. :) Here he is with the mascot, the Leopard.







Here's Mallory having a great time in Bubba's classroom.

















Then we went to Carino's for dinner - also very nice. We rounded out the two for $20 meals with the mini dessert - delicious chocolate cake with ice cream. Two people at the table thought it was particularly good.

May 28th??

Seriously? That's the last time I wrote here? For shame. Can you say, "Full-time-working-mother-of-two-small-kids?" I thought so.

The summer has absolutely flown by - every 100 degree day of it. Our summer has been filled with day care fun (including Christopher's snow cone making once a week and at least one painted project a week), swimming lessons at Lifetime Fitness (that's whole story by itself) and hanging at our neighborhood pool on the weekend evenings. During the day, we were thankful for air conditioning, Dora the Explorer, and Sid the Science Kid. Who could ask for anything more? I got some scrapbooking in which is my indulgence, so life is good.

And now, it's time for the school year. Christopher is starting a PreK program in the school district - he will have one year before Kindergarten. I am very excited about it - he has some developmental gaps that this program will help. It's a big school - a regular elementary school with a real gym and cafeteria, etc. He will be going for 1/2 days. They will bus him to his regular daycare after that.

We will be meeting his teacher tomorrow night. I can't wait. He can't wait. Grab the kleenex and make sure the camera is charged.

Mallory will be at the Learning Tree (where she is now) and will be in their 2 year old room. How time flies.

And today, I am tired and thankful. Tired from the working, kids, school, karate, swimming lessons. Thankful that my life is enriched in such a way that enables me to do all those things with my beautiful family. And, it just doesn't get any better than that.

At night at the Crosslands

My nightly routine with Christopher invariably includes reading a short book about Transformers (not on the NY Times bestseller list, but definitely on the Christopher Michael Crossland bestseller list), and then just laying in bed, singing and talking.

First, I sing him a song that my Dad used to sing to us when we were kids. I even think he was the songwriter on it:
"Oh it's time to go to bed, and get a good night's sleep, so we can get up tomorrow morning, and have a lot of fun. We had a good day, we want a good night, so please, Dear God, bless us all tonight." I realize not having the melody makes the song a little hard to truly envision, but work with it. Put your own melody to it. That's what my Dad would do.

Then, he sings me a song that his music teacher taught him for Mother's Day:
"Your Mom's a special lady, so hug her every day. She gives you lots of food to eat and takes you out to play. Your Mommy reads you stories and buys you sneakers too, Aren't you happy that you have a Mama who loves you?" Very very cute. Makes me tear up almost every night. Even the random line about buying you sneakers . . . . :)

Then, I ask him what the best part of his day was. Here's where it gets good.

Back in March, we went to the rodeo, and there was a carnival there. On that day, when I asked him that question, he said, "Going to the rodeo and the carnival." Very appropriate.

What is funny as hell is that every single night since then, when I ask him what his favorite part of his day is, he says, "Going to the rodeo and the carnival." and then bursts out laughing. Even sometimes when I start asking the question, he starts smirking . . . . "Going to the rodeo and the carnival." We get a good laugh. And sometimes I cannot get him to tell me any other part of his day because he is laughing so hard.

What a nut. Fits right into this family.

Posts without Pictures

I find myself not coming on here to write without some picture to dangle in front of everyone. But I decided that that train of thought would prevent me from the whole point of this blog, which is to write of the lives and times of our family. So, no pics today, just stories.

We went this weekend to San Angelo - to see Dewey's brother Ricky and all of his family - wife, kids, grandkids. They live on some property that includes geese, a horse, a donkey, some chickens - much like the petting zoos I remember growing up. My kids were enthralled with those animals, even though, bless their hearts, the animals are pretty mean. Especially the geese. (I remember a trip there once with Shelby, where one of those geese snapped at her through the chain link fence. She was none too happy.) So the kids had to watch Uncle Ricky and Aunt Tricia feed the animals from the back porch or from the window. Nevertheless, they loved being that close to real live animals.

Ricky's grandkids are close to my kids' age, so there were lots of toys and playmates. Christopher especially loved playing in the yard in his swimsuit in the mud (even though a storm blew in and the temps dropped - he didn't seem to care!). He also went on the swings with his cousin Brooke. She was pretty cute - she wanted him to marry her, but he had no part of it!

The whole drive took well over 6 hours - we went to Austin to pick up Dewey's mother, and took her with us. So it was 3 hours to Austin, brief stop, then 3 1/2 to San Angelo. Thank God for DVD players in the car - kept the kids occupied until they fell asleep. Overall, though, they tolerated the drive well.

We reversed the trip on Sunday (which was fine by us, as there were a lot of people in the house, so lots of stimulation, both for the kids and us) and got home about 8PM Sunday night. That kept us home on Monday to recuperate and relax. That was a great part of the weekend - to have that one extra day to do the laundry and just get back on schedule.

Hope your Memorial Day was as filled with good memories as ours was! Who knows, maybe my next post will go back to the picture thing . . . . .

Spring

I have never been as much of a spring fan as I am a fall fan. I love everything about the fall - the colors, the clothes, the food, the impending holidays. The spring is the last coolness before we endure the 6 months of summer that Texas enjoys each year. At least it seems like 6 months.

As promised, some picture updates:

These are my two beauties at the Huntsville State Park. For those of you that are not in Texas, Huntsville is home of our Death Row Maximum Security Prison (nice!) and also a very pretty state park. As if one cancels out the other. There were no bluebonnets in the park that I could get to to take a picture, so these random wildflowers had to do. The best bluebonnet patches were on the side of the highway, but the noise would drive Christopher crazy, and I don't trust Mallory to not take off into traffic. So, stay tuned for next year for bluebonnet pictures, and if you look hard enough, these red ones are pretty too - right? At least both kids are looking at the camera.

We started an Easter tradition this year. I told the kids they could eat their chocolate bunny's ears for breakfast. Christopher thought that was hilarious - "Eat the ears for breakfast, Mommy. That's so silly." But, he went to town on his bunny. I helped Mallory out with hers, so that the bunny would not melt in her hands while she screamed, "Mine mine mine!" So, I broke hers off and she ate them happily.

Here's a great shot of Christopher. He was in the driveway helping Dad wash the truck. Dad let him play with the power washer, so he was watering the plants and just having a grand old time. Spring in Texas does allow us the luxury of water play in April, while many of our northern friends were experiencing snow! The sunglasses are Batman - he loves those. The hat has Bumblebee - an old school Transformer from the Animated series. He loves his Transformers. He loves things that are action packed and full of energy and good & bad guys. Absolutely all boy.

And, here's my Blondie at the State park in Huntsville. She loves the slide. She yells, "Whee!" every time she goes down it. Every time. She is not a poser for pictures - so to get this kind of smile, I have to (1) take a lot of pictures and (2) catch her at just the right moment. Like this one - where she is so happy to be at the top of that slide, she can hardly contain herself. And, I promise you, there was a "WHEEE!" as she came down for the millionth time.

And this past Saturday, we had a day of solid rain. I mean, one day, solid rain. Like 4 inches in a day. So at 630PM, when the sun FINALLY came out, we went out puddle jumping. Again , the warm weather allows us the luxury of jumping in puddles after the rain. They got soaked and laughed and had a great time. We came in before the mosquitos knew the standing water was there, and everyone was happy. Especially Mom and Dad, who were so happy to get out of the house.

Hope this catches you all up on the lives and times here in Houston. We send our love to everyone!

Waffles, Sweet Waffles

The reason this blog has been a little silent is because I wouldn't allow myself to post anything more until I wrote this post about my sweet, sweet dog. It's just a little honor that I owe her.

I got Waffles in the spring of 1999 at a very mere 6 weeks old. She was the result of an irresponsible litter of puppies had by my mother-in-law's unspayed dachshund. She weighed 1 pound, 6 ozs. She was the runt of the litter and just didn't quite look like the others. I remember my mother-in-law telling me, "Keep the all black one, she's the smartest." Those of you who knew Waffles later in life knew that that was not exactly true . . . . .

I named her Waffles after a Chow that I had met at the SPCA in Austin, where I was dropping off donations. This Chow was so sweet and mild mannered, and her family had died in a flood. She was the most beautiful golden color, and I knew I couldn't have a dog that big, but as I sat and petted her, I promised her that my very next dog would be named Waffles, after her.

After finding homes for Waffles' siblings, we settled down to be a two-dog home. After Shelby's initial disgust, she took to Waffles in a maternal way, and they learned to be a family together. And we with them.

Of all of my dogs, Waffles was extremely bonded to me. She was protective of me and loved nothing more than to lay scrunched up right next to me, just as close as she could. If I was laying on the couch, she loved to lay on my chest and put the side of her face and her fuzzy lips right up against mine, and I would kiss her. She absolutely loved that.

When I brought both of my human babies home, she loved them and paced around them to be sure that they were OK, and that I was OK. I preserved her spot in the bed each night, allowing that to be our special time, and she enjoyed every minute of it. As we all got older, and my time got taken up by more living beings, Waffles never fretted or acted out. All she asked was for her spot next to me in my bed every night, and she was happy. We should all be so satisfied with something so simple.

As many of you know, about 3-4 weeks ago, Waffles disappeared. She got out from under our fence during a particularly terrible storm here in Houston. She was absolutely terrified of storms, and this one was a doozy. She went right out the dog door and right under the fence. She did not have a collar on, though she is microchipped. They saw her at the school across the street at about 230. We started looking at 300. We looked and looked. We posted signs, we coordinated with the neighborhood lost-and-found-dog-lady, I visited all the PetCos and PetSmarts, and all the local vets. I posted on Craig's list.

I don't know what has happened to my beloved Waffles. Maybe she has gone to heaven to meet our Heavenly Father, and she is curled up right next to my own heavenly father, snuggled up next to him, eating the Cheez It crumbs that are undoubtedly on his shirt, even in heaven. Maybe she got picked up by an unsuspecting landscaper or construction guy who saw a well taken care of, though nervous, chihuahua-y looking dog and thought his kids might like her. Maybe someone was really lonely and God saw it fit for Waffles to serve out the rest of her life serving another lonely soul. Maybe I will never know.

What I do know is that I will look for Waffles for a very long time. I will scope out the neighborhood watching for someone that has her, and doesn't want to give her back. I will check the Animal Control website for dogs that look like her in the event that someone took her, and then didn't want her anymore. I hold a small glimmer of hope that I will be reunited with my soulmate dog again someday. If nothing else, I will be reunited with her when I make my own journey to my Heavenly Father.

So now's the time to say thanks, Waffles. Thanks for being such a unique, quirky little dog that we loved so dearly. Thanks for your patience every time I found pee on the carpet and knew it was you, and perhaps reacted angrily to you. Thanks for making me the one special person in your life. Thanks for making me laugh with your bat ears and your bald neck. Thanks for being the role model of what unconditional love is.

Until we meet again, my sweet, sweet Waffles, may God hold you in the palm of His Hand.

Rainy days and Sundays

. . .. always get me down? Is that how that song goes?


I am not sure. But what I am sure of is that this rainy day AND Sunday doesn't have me too down, although I've been back a little under the weather. Maybe it's a new sick, and maybe it's a lingering sick, but it's crappy sick nonetheless. And it has been raining since Thursday.


Mind you, many people are glad. The grass loves nothing more than real rain from the sky, rather than what I pay the City of Houston to use through my watering system. Hmmm - the grass loves the free stuff, and thinks what I pay for is just OK. Where's the irony in that?


My neighborhood will be the home of the Shell Houston Open golf tournament in a week or two. The planners, I'm sure, are thrilled that this rain happened right now, so the grass on the course will be perfect.



Maybe Governor Perry will be glad, as he petitioned for federal aid for counties north and west of me as they experience the worst drought in recent history. Or, maybe he just wanted the $$ and is a little disappointed. You just never know these days.


But our rainy day was spent inside. All day. Those of you who either have small kids, or did have them once upon a time, know what this was like. We start out the day happy - everyone shares and smiles. By now (6:18PM), everyone wants the same toy. No one likes the meals or the snacks provided. And everyone is just crabby. Including one sick-but-on-the-mend Mom.


We have a busy few weeks ahead of us - and lots to post about soon. But for today, I will limit the blog to one picture - one of Flat Stanley. For those of you who don't know who Flat Stanley is, let's let Wikipedia help us out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley Anyway, a coworker was in town from Chicago, and had his daughter's Flat Stanley with him. Coincidentally, Dewey and I were going to the rodeo that night, so I jumped at the chance to bring Flat Stanley along. We took his picture all over the rodeo grounds, and had lots of people recognize him. We got a lot of laughs.


Dewey and I went by ourselves to this event (yay for babysitters) because it was in the evening, and the kids aren't really old enough yet to (1) appreciate it or (2) handle the crowds and the noise. BTW - the musical performer was Alan Jackson - mmmmm. Very good. Stay tuned for a rodeo day that Christopher and I have planned this week with some friends.

OK - that's all the free time I get before I get to play referee, all the while looking at the clock, thinking, "Is it bedtime yet???"

Chutes and Ladders

Yes - the board game. Chutes and Ladders. Here's a quick visual for your memory pleasure:

Gram got one for Christopher for his birthday, and we pulled it out today. While Mallory napped, we spun the spinner, counted the squares, and climbed ladders and slid down chutes. It's funny because he doesn't really get the whole winning-losing thing - he didn't mind sliding backwards because for whatever reason, he didn't associate that with losing. Or being behind. Or any of the other things that would freak out my most competitive friends (you know who you are). He just wanted to climb every ladder and slide every chute - which is tough to explain to the 4 year old -- that you only climb at the bottom of a ladder and only slide at the top of a chute. Who knew the thing could be so much fun? But I was so proud of how he waited his turn and let me help him count squares, etc. It was a very fun adventure.

Happy Birthday Christopher!

Christopher turned 4 on 01/21 (the birthday he shares with his twin, my beautiful friend Tondi - Happy Birthday Tondi!). His requests were for toys, balloons, and cake. He brought cupcakes to school, then come home for the celebration.

One of his favorite toys was the Fisher Price Digital camera. It's picture quality is pretty low, but he can take pictures over and over and enjoy seeing them in the display, just like Mom does with her camera. This was a big hit.

He also enjoyed a new Nerf gun, a Chutes and Ladders game, and a Cars racetrack.

Sister had a good time too sharing the day with her special pink balloon, and luckily, brother was willing to share, well, most of his new toys.

His regular question now is how long until Christmas again. Poor thing -- the year that will go so quickly for us as adults will be an eternity for this 4 year old.

Mallory Marie

I love this picture. To tell you the truth, in the heat of the holiday chaos, I have no idea why I was taking this picture, or what she was doing, or what compelled me to press the shutter button at this moment. I didn't even really look at it until I uploaded it.

And now, I am in love with it. The tousled hair, the unassuming and unposed look, the arm resting on the Christmas box, the black laptop bag strap - all just part of this moment, and my little girl.

I love it.