Claire's Birthday

Next weekend is Claire's birthday, but her dad has her that weekend, so we celebrated with her this weekend. She is 11 now. She was complaining about not being able to go to girl's camp with Lexi and Emylie. I told her this would be the last year she did not go.

She wanted to see her old friends in Coppell, so we decided to have a party at the park we lived next to. Since she did not have contact information for most of those friends, we decided we would have a reverse surprise party. We knocked on the doors of all her old friends and said, "surprise! It's Claire's birthday. Want to come to our party?" Or something like that. Only her friends Lauren and Marissa (twin sisters) and two neighborhood boys and the family were able to come. The bulk of it was facilitated by our dear former neighbor, Sybil. She made cake and had balloons and streamers. I brought burgers and dogs to grill.

It was sprinkling before we started grilling. Then the sun shone magnificently for the party. Then, as soon as we had everything packed in the cars, a downpour began. I guess that was Claire's little birthday gift from Heavenly Father.

It was a lot better than what I got her. I was going to get her some of the advertised dollar flip-flops at Old Navy, but they were totally gone and had been for hours by the time we were done with all our fun. She did pick out a handbag while were were there (she already has 1/2 dozen of them). But wer were not able to find anything else in the remaining 1/2 hour of store hours. The store was a wreck after a major shopping day and finding anything was a bit of a challenge.

The kids had school off on Friday, and Claire asked me if I could come to her track and field day on Wednesday, so I figured I could come on Weds. and spend the night with my friend Theresa (who took me on the cruise) and her husband nearby and then take the kids home Thursday evening. I spent the day on Thursday working with Theresa in her yard and brought home a bunch of monkey grass. I only planted it along the back of the house until I could get the plastic border to plant it around my things out front. Three of my four new rose bushes are blooming. Myy friend, DeeDee gave me daylilies which probably won't do anything this year, but at least I have something besides the monstrous shrubs that the developers put in.

10 Minutes at the Park.

Amelia is sitting on my lap with a fever and I can hardly see the screen because my eyes are so puffy and swollen with allergies, but I missed you, and I don't feel like cleaning anything. Anastasia was really fussy this morning and was better after I put some teething gel on the tiny spot of gum between her front teeth and molars. While I was at it, I put some on Amelia since they always cut their teeth together. That may be why Amelia has a fever.

I finished my anthropology class, but I did not post any of my writing from there and now I can't because ANOTHER computer had a breakdown. Fortunately my assignment was turned in before the failure. The problem is the power supply. It is like a car having a dead battery. The engine is fine but it won't start. We will replace the power supply as soon as we get paid. I had a dream last light the Mike said we got paid early and it was $3000. I was a little disappointed to wake up with only a memory.

I put the babies in the wagon this morning and took them for a walk to the park. It was a solid 10 minute walk, 10 minute play time and 10 minute trip back. Anastasia was a little more excited about climbing and sliding. There are no swings in the neighborhood : ( We got home in time to watch Backyardagains over lunch. Then it was nap time.

I am looking forward to the American Idol finale. Kris made it to the top two because Mike voted for him. Mostly, Mike was hoping that Adam would get the boot. He can't stand the theatrics and doesn't think that Adam is anything like a rock star. I think Adam is expressive and creative and that he has a great voice, but I agree with Mike that Kris has a much better chance of being a really successful artist. Adam will have a ridiculously loyal fan base but he takes too many risks and will not appeal to the masses.


Kris is an all-around guy-next-door CU! TIE! He just needs a good producer to guide him through the music selection process and he will be all over the charts. Did you notice, he plays piano AND guitar. He is a good all-around musician.

I think it would be great if he won, but he will probably be better off if he doesn't. Idol fails to maximize the success of their artists.

A Job!

All the paperwork is signed, so Mike officially has a job. He spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Tyler (The lovely city in which we met 3 years ago this month) to do a network installation for the electric company's division there. He spent the night there last night because it was cheaper for the company to pay for a hotel than for gas 2 times. The babies are crying at my legs and trying to turn off my computer, even though I have spent more time playing with them and giving them attention than I have all week. It is 15 minutes till bedtime. They are bathed and ready. Once they are down it will be time for my American Idol results show, though I only saw Danny's performance last night, so I really don't know who to vote most likely to go home.

Alright, now I am typing with both of them in my lap and the screaming has not stopped. That means we flex on the 10 minutes till bedtime. It starts now.

Don't Mind Me, I'm Asleep

I don't even know how long it has really been, and I am really too tired to post anything, but I'll give you a sloppy snack of Janika's Latest. Kids were all here this weekend and we got to have a little adventure. It rained off and on all day Saturday, getting progressively worse through the evening. The sky got darker and greenish. The rain came down really hard. Hard enough that the kids were done playing in it. It got so intense that we couldn't really see out the window. But the kids were able to see well enough to know that the trampoline had been picked up by the wind and got its legs dropped out of their sockets. Our eastern fence blew over and the western one had a little more lean than it used to have. Our neighbors behind us got one of their fences knocked over too.

When it died down, the girls went outside to tell our eastern neighbor that their dogs were out and our fence was down. They worked together to put it back up. They said one of the neighbor ladies saw a funnel cloud and a bird get struck by lightning and explode. Don't know about all that, but there was flooding and a whole lot of fences and signs down this morning.

We never lost power. We heard at church that some people did, but they were not in our neighborhood.

This is the last week of my anthropology class, so I have a term paper due this week, so I will not be likely to post here in that time, unless I put up some of my anthropology discussions like I have been thinking of doing.

Now I have to convince my husband to go to bed.