Open House

Allison had an open house at school today. Since it's visual and performing arts, the children both put on a short play and they had an art show, where they displayed some of their water colors.

The play was based on a story the children told to their teachers about what they wanted to be when they grew up. They were gathering, many years in the future, to have a party and talk about old times. They brought with them photographs (laminated drawings they made) of their lives, their families, their houses.

They actually did this in two groups, so there were two short plays. The kids arrived one at a time, after ringing the doorbell, and each was supposed to talk about their photos but most of them were very shy and quiet, so the teacher narrated.

The occupations were pretty amusing. In the first group, there were three or four horse doctors. I was actually pretty amused by that since that's what my grandmother calls doctors she thinks are incompetent. He's some kind of horse doctor! Anyway. There was also a cowboy, which is lucky since there were so many horse doctors around.

Allison was in the second group, which was very, very amusing. There was a future fireman and a dancer. There was also an animal doctor specializing in snails--you can't make these things up, I swear. My absolute favorite was Allison's weird little friend Molly--I have pictures she drew of Allison on my refrigerator--who announced that she was going to live at Disneyland when she got older and that, as a job, she was going to be....wait for it...a pegasus!

Allison informed me on the way home that Molly wasn't just going to be a pegasus, she was going to be a flying pegasus. I told her those are the best kind. Could we visit her in Disneyland when I grow up, she asked? I said, of course. If your friend Molly figures out a way to live at Disneyland, we're totally going to visit.

Allison's pictures showed her house, on a teeny road in a little village. Her family--a husband, a little girl, and a best friend. And she told everyone in a strong, clear voice that when she grew up, she wanted to be a mama.

It was very sweet.

We brought her watercolors home. We're starting to get quite a pile of art, so there will be art work coming in the mail to anyone who wants it. We already sent one piece to Uncle Luke. We'll send more and add Uncle Marty and all the grandparents to the list.

I really wish I had pictures because it was such a sweet little show. But alas, no camera.

You've got to have goals

Allison: When I grow up I want to be a Mama.
Me: You do?
Allison: Yes, because girls are Mamas.
Me: This is true.
Allison: I'll have one baby.
Allison: Or two.
Me: Are you going to do anything else?
Allison: I also want to go to grajeate school.
Me: Really? Wow.
Me: What do you want to study?
Allison: hmmmm.....Plutarch?

I have news.

I don't know if I mentioned it here but we were approved for WIC some time ago--it's supplemental food program, which we qualify for since our income is low at the moment. It's a very well-run program here in Texas. No paper vouchers, just a debit style card that allows us to acquire a certain amount of eggs, cheese, milk, juice, beans, peanut butter, and cereal each month.

It's more eggs and cereal than we'd normally eat. Anybody have any recipes that call for a flaming horde of eggs? If you've got anything, throw it out. Because I have a whole lot of eggs. Bonus points if it also calls for a whole bunch of cereal.

We also applied for the Texas state children's health insurance program. We weren't sure if we'd qualify, given that we have some savings, but as it happens, we did. I just got the call a few minutes ago letting me know that the girls would be covered. This is excellent news. I'm very happy. In fact, I might cry a little bit.

St. Edward's University: Not all of the buildings are awful

Camera scurf

The memory card from the camera survived the accident, so I have some last pictures of the girls before we go camera-free around here.

What have they been up to lately? Well, they played in a box. Especially Frances. This was quite popular, the box.





































Allison is starting to enjoy having hairdos (her word, not mine) and we both sort of enjoy inflicting them on Frances. Frances is not such a fan.






















Nor does she have a lot of hair.





















And she pulled it out.




















Now, here is Allison on her way to school, wearing a hairdo, and striking her trademark "sweet" pose. You'll be familiar with this from her other posing work on this blog.





















Here we are, off to school, all in pink and, I don't know, sassy or something. She's very hip.

Hi, friends.

So Monday morning, right? I'm getting ready to take Allison to school and I set my laptop bag down on the curb while I get the girls in their seats and seatbelts and then I get in the car and I drive away.

That's right. I left it on the curb.

I figured this out when I got down to Allison's school so I raced back thinking please let it be there. Please let it be there. Alas, it was not. My laptop. My phone. My camera. My wallet.

I had to assume someone stole it, so I went to a payphone to call Joe. I went to campus to look for him, he wandered around looking for me. Eventually we found each other and I borrowed his phone to cancel credit and debit cards and then I went home to feel sorry for myself because I no longer had a computer and, while most of my data was backed up, not many of my notes were and none of my lectures. Not that I'm that far ahead on class prep but I had a few lectures ready already.

Sigh.

Meanwhile, Joe had the superb idea to put a sign on the tree out front saying did you find a bag, if so call this number. About 9pm, I got a call on Joe's phone from a man who said he had my bag. This was good news. He brought it by and I opened it up.

To discover everything in it was broken. Laptop. Camera. Phone. Non-functional. What's up with that, yo? I wasn't sure until I remembered that I *thought* I'd driven over the curb pulling away. See, Allison thinks this is funny. So we drove over something and she laughed and told me I was a bad driver. Which I might be because, see, I drove over my bag. With my laptop in it. And the camera. And my phone.

So how am I typing this? Well, when you're in a tight spot, call yer mom. She might just help you out. My mom sprang for a new laptop, for which I am most grateful, and I picked it up today and I am back to poaching a signal.

As it happens, the hard drive of my old laptop could be salvaged, so all of my data is intact, so that is also very good news. We're out $57 to replace the phone and we don't have a camera anymore. It could be worse. I could have run over Sonja or something, you know?

Who is Ike?

It didn't even rain.

What else is happening?

Let's start with me since I'm the one at the keyboard. I'm teaching. It seems to be going fine. My class is starting to loosen up a little. They seem like good kids. Nothing much to report there. I need to make some friends, in other news. I find myself chatting to people on the bus because a) they aren't in my class and b) neither are they four years old. I actually have a bus friend--her name is An--that I see on my way home. The fact that I'm telling you this should communicate everything you need to know about my social state at the moment.

Meanwhile, a friend of a friend is taking a course on Islam at the local mosque and I've decided to take it, too. I have to teach Islam this semester, so it will be good prep. It will also be another social outlet. That starts on Sunday night.

Now for Joe. He's into his classes, which are kind of a mixed bag but generally everything seems to be going fine. He's managing everything with just the kind of understated angst a person should expect from Joe. He's also making some friends in the program, which is great. His fellow TA and officemate had a party for all the first year students, so I met everyone, too. He's got some good student colleagues and he's TAing with a couple of really nice people. He's got a couple of long days on campus that are beginning to include grabbing a beer before seminar and chatting about Aristotle. It's shaping up to be a pretty good life.

How about the children? The children, as you might expect, are loud. They are noisy beings all. Allison is enjoying school. Her drawing skills are already improving tremendously. They've been learning to draw people. She went from abstract scribbling to representational art overnight. Super fun times. I am going to photograph and post the text from her latest book, I think, which is called: Jewish People That Escaped from God. There are princesses in it. She is weird but don't tell her I said that. She hasn't learned to appreciate weirdness.

Frances is also quite fine. She gets very excited whenever Mama or Daddy comes home and greets us with squeals and kisses. She's a happy little girl. Except when she's screaming.

Finally, there's the church hunt. We took a break last week and visited a baptist church, which is where Allison will attend Awana. I'm really excited about Awana because she's got a smattering of bible knowledge but it's all jumbled up (see: Jewish People That Escaped from God). Anyway, it was big, it was baptist. They immersed someone, they did an altar call. In between, there was a long sermon about demons.

We've been to three episcopal churches so far. At the first, we were greeted at the door by a female priest who told us they were liturgically proper but theologically liberal. The former seemed to be the case. Can't say much for the former, although they did do Rite I.

Next, we visited a place that was really quite a lovely little community but it was very small. As in, I was recruited for the choir in the foyer after the service. That's okay with me, actually, except that they didn't have many kids in the congregation.

After that, we visited a place that belongs to the Common Cause Partnership, St. Luke's on the Lake. It is astoundingly beautiful.
















The glory of God's creation streaming in the windows. You can't tell it from this picture but the whole of the front of the church is windows and the building is situated on a cliff, overlooking Lake Travis.

The service itself was not bad for Rite II. That's the best way to put it. And people were extremely friendly. It is a very welcoming church. It is also, on the other hand, pretty evangelical. That isn't the worst thing--we're both from evangelical backgrounds, so it's familiar--but we'd prefer something a little more anglo-catholic.

We're going to try one more place, a continuing church, that looks a little more traditional. That will be Sunday. If it doesn't suit, we'll return to St. Luke's and stay there for a while.

Pictures of the kids should be coming soon. I have some pictures of the girls playing in a box. Isn't it so interesting when I tell you about pictures instead of posting them? It's thrilling, I'm sure.

So that's it. I promise to post pictures soon. Really.

Stay home Ike. Tina ain't here*

Hi all. Yes, we are in the path of a very large hurricane, so I thought I'd write a little note here. I'll update you on the other side. It's expected to be a fairly major storm here in Austin but we're not on the coast and Ike, while extremely large, is not an exceptionally strong hurricane. I think we should be okay. The main concern around here is hail damage. We're going to put the car in the carport--we usually park on the street--to minimize the threat of damage. Other than that, I think we should be fine.

Okay, this is my hurricane post. I think I'll write another to update you on what else is happening. And there will be some pictures soon. We don't have an internet connection at home and I keep forgetting to put the pictures on my laptop so I can post them.




*as seen on a restaurant sign on my way down to St. Ed's this morning. I thought it was funny.