phawlie and friends 1

g: so it's been awhile since your introduction, phawlie. i was beginning to wonder whether you and the team were ever coming back. what have you been doing for the last month?

phawlie: sorry, g. i had somehow forgotten about the yu-gi-oh! championship series in philadelphia on october 9-10. the competition was unusaully fierce. i nearly lost my blue-eyes white dragon to mr. blawkh, if you can believe it.

g: that sounds intense. not to be rude, but i didn't realize there was such a championship series. did many attend?

phawlie: oh yeah. lots of players, including adults. there are already about 900 regional qualifiers in the u.s. alone this year. it's a pretty big deal.

g: wow. still, october 9-10 was several weeks ago.

phawlie: yes, but you've got to account for recovery time. playing duel monsters is really draining. life points don't just automatically materialize, you know. it takes concentation to bring them back up.

g: i see. well, while you were doing that, i was wondering about something you said before. last time, you referred to khawsmo and wrex as your animal spirit guides. why not personal daemons? is there any difference?

phawlie: that's a rather complex question, g. the short answer is no, there isn't much difference. the main reason i use animal spirit guide is because personal daemon might sound scary to people. i wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea.

g: scary?! personal daemon is completely mainstream. you even find it in kids' books. don't you read phillip pullman? surely you saw the golden compass. how could anyone object?

phawlie: no. actually i don't read novels or watch adaptations of novels to film. i wouldn't want my perception of reality to get jumbled. history is hard enough to hold onto as it is. 

all hallows' eve eve(s)

we began our halloween festivities a few weeks ago. in a desperate attempt to get hazel to actually play soccer, i told her we'd buy pumpkins if she helped her teammates out. it was a no-go for 28 minutes of the 30 minute game.  and then, lo and behold, she played goalie! (alas, no picture. i stopped taking the camera several games before. teaser: the season ended on a high note and i'll blog about that another day, with pictures.) true to my word, we stopped by the grocery store on our way home:

we did our traditional painting of said pumpkins a few days later. the girls painted with pollock-like precision:

 

sadly, these works of art didn't fair much better than my ghost pumpkin of last year: they both turned to rot within a week. (lame houston and it's humidity.)

last friday was our first halloween outing. hazel, per request, was tiny pteranodon:

no. i did not make it. i was planning on it but during a rare apostrophe, i decided to look around and found that costume online. hooray! i certainly couldn't have made it better. lucy didn't have any costume requests. i decided a princess would be cute (and easy!). i found an easy tutu tutorial and bought all of my supplies a week or more before the big day. but it was friday morning that i finally sat down and made it: 

cute, no? for her "crown", i just glued flowers to a plain headband. i was pretty proud of myself, especially for pulling it all together in a couple of hours. once we were all costumed up (i went as a tired mom and housewife. done and done.), we headed over to a party, where we frolicked:

and ate yummy treats:

hazel took off tiny's head almost as soon as we got there. in her defense, it was a bit snug and i didn't have time to pull any of the stuffing out to make it fit better. oh well. there were also some fun games; a beanbag toss and a "guess what you're touching" game:

 we got all of the kiddies to pose together:

 except one pteranodon with attitude:

we rushed home afterwards and got ready to play with our buddies in the babysitting swap. oliver surprised me by hanging out with all of the cat-crazy kids:

then early saturday morning, i ran my very first 10k with amanda (this is the same friend who's takes fantastic pictures. seriously, check out her blog.). we did awesome, of course. sometime around the 4th mile, my foot felt like it was getting a charlie-horse. so i adjusted my stride and finished the last 2.2 miles without any trouble. once home, i prepared to take hazel to her final soccer game. my foot started to hurt a bit but not bad enough to stop me from doing anything. we got home from soccer and took naps. when i stood up after sleeping i couldn't put much weight on it. i didn't want to miss out on the kids' halloween treats (just being honest here) so we got the kids ready for our church trunk-or-treat despite my limp. notice anything different?:

the girls pulled a switcheroo on us and luckily their costumes were interchangeable. you'll also notice that tiny has a lazy-eye. we didn't notice until it was almost over so it's wonky in all of the pictures (it gives the costume more character, right?). hazel was determined to get as much candy as possible and didn't bother waiting for grant and lucy (i stayed by our friends, matt and amanda, and handed out candy):

 somewhere along the way, hazel got her face painted. can you guess who's on her mind??

eventually, the sugar-crash hit:

 
and we headed home.

p.s. my foot is better (fingers crossed). i have yet to run on it but it hasn't hurt since wednesday night. and amanda took some great pictures of the girls at the trunk-or-treat here.

i've always been a dog person. . .

. . .so it made complete sense to get the girls this little guy:

meet oliver. some friends at church needed to find a home for him and we decided to be that home. he's really shy:

he spent the first couple of hours under our bed. the girls tried coaxing him out but something about their loud, "kitty! come here!", "kitty! pet you?!" and "to the moon, kitty!" made him scoot further back. once hazel and lucy were confined to their room/crib, i saw him cautiously creep out. it took a few more tricks to convince him to emerge, nevertheless emerge he did:

once he felt safer, he bravely began to explore:

he's very curious:

as soon as we got him out of our room, i shut the door (cat hair in my bed? no, thank you!) and he had to find himself a new hiding spot.

it took a loooooong time for hazel and lucy to wind down and fall to sleep. sadly, that didn't keep them from waking up bright and early. the second she was up, hazel was in hunter-mode. it took a while for the two of us to find him:

he seems pretty wary of the kids but lets them have a pat or two:

one can only hope he'll get used to the noise in time. . .

p.s. he's quickly making his way into my heart. i love him already.

our little bug . . .

. . . is four today: 

happy birthday monkey!

r & r

finally! a post! with pictures! and stories! it must be your lucky day. . .

on the very last day of september we had our carpets cleaned. i had planned on hitting the stores and having lunch somewhere the kids could run wild. instead grant surprised me by suggesting a spontaneous trip to the beach. hazel asks at least once a week to go. who was i to say "no"? so we picked grant up from "the forest where the cars live" (aka rice) and drove on down:

 it was by and far the most relaxing trip to galveston we've had.

the beach was nearly deserted. the weather was perfect: sunny, but not hot. the water was perfect: refreshingly cool and comfortable. 

 mud was at a perfect consistency for getting lucy's feet stuck:

 and for re-enacting the dinosaurs' demise:

 wah wah wahh:

then hazel found a shell:

 not just any shell, an occupied shell:

peek-a-boo!

the hermit crab was reallllllly shy and took ages to come out:

. . .waiting. . .

oh look! he's waving "hello":

um. . . . now heeee's loooooking at me:

 hermits weren't the only wildlife:

 once again the beach did it's job:

 kind of:

in other news:

 for those wondering how soccer is going for hazel:

we missed one practice (that was beach day) and one game. we gave hazel the choice to go and both times she quickly teared up and squealed, "no!" we brainstormed and decided to make her go, even if she refuses to play. i told her the deal: we're going, but you don't have to play unless you want to. last thursday was a blessedly tear-free practice. she wouldn't join the team in their drills but did kick the ball around with one of the coaches. we had hopes for saturday's game:

sadly, she spent the first half sitting on my lap wearing my sunglasses. i got her to interact with the team during half-time (there were juice boxes to be had) and even nudged her onto the field when the second half was starting. bad idea. the tears came quickly and it was all i could do to keep her there. we stood on the sideline for the rest and i occasionally asked if she was ready to help her teammates out. no go. maybe next time?

trente et un

today is grant's 31st birthday. in honor of that i've compiled a list of 31 things i love about him. in no particular order:

1. he's older than i am.
2. the way he keeps the kids out of my hair when i've had a bad day.
3. his height.
4. he's an extremely hard worker.
5. he rubs my feet almost every time i ask him to.
6. his eyes that change from green to brown.
7. his sometimes unexpected goofiness.
8. his thrifty ways, even (or especially) when they're at odds with my high-maintenance ways.
9. that he claims i'm not high-maintenance.
10. his crooked nose.
11. his handsome smile.
12. his ability to make me feel special.
13. the attention he gives to the girls.
14. he's incredibly smart. . . 
15. and amazingly modest about it.
16. his excitement whenever he sees a predatory bird.
17. the interest he shows in my day.
18. his quirky wardrobe.
19. the way he cuts his own hair.
20. his long, dark eyelashes.
21. that he makes dinner almost as much as i do.
22. his joy in getting the girls to say silly things, like "ham-bird" and "badger".
23. his steady beliefs in a unbelief friendly environment.
24. his hugs and kisses.
25. his wicked bike-riding skills.
26. his enthusiasm and encouragement of my running.
27. the way he rolls over when i tell him he's snoring.
28. his ability to wear the towel shirt without looking like a weirdo.
29. that he never gets annoyed when my eyes glaze over while he's talking of research projects.
30. his increasingly gray hair.
31. his plans to grow his gray hair out and wear it in braids á la willie nelson style.