back to school!

August 27 and Maggie's survived her first 2 weeks as a freshman and Abby's survived her first full week (plus two days) as a 6th grader. And I seem to still be alive as well, though I certainly haven't gotten back in the groove yet.

Maggie is running cross country again this year, practice every day after school from 3:45-5:15. They run at City Park (for the most part) and she enjoys it although it's so HOT at that time a day! She's taking a slew of honors classes this year and so far is managing her time well. Tom and I were both able to attend the parent's night and meet all her teachers (last year it conflicted with Abby's and he went there and I went to Maggie's). I was "fired" from directing us around the school when we arrived late to the first class (in my defense, the numbering system is strange, especially as both even AND odd numbered classrooms are on the same side, somewhat willy-nilly in my opinion!). And last night was their big "back to school" dance. Every year the Student Council chooses a "theme" and assigns specifics to each grade level. This year it's something like "Dominican Dresses It Up" and each grade has a different salad dressing assigned (get it?). The Freshmen are "French". And they dress up for the dance. Her group of friends decided to be French Artists. We went to Michael's last week and purchased supplies -- foam board for pallettes, t-shirts, duct tape (in green, the "color" for the freshmen), and bandanas to wear around their necks. Yesterday afternoon I picked up 4 of them from cross country practice to come here and shower and get ready. Another 5 then came over and had pizza and got all prepared (including painted on mustaches). Another set of parents came to help transport them all to the dance. And then she went home with the 4 cross country girls for a sleep over (so at least I didn't have to make the 11pm run!). I'd forgotten how LOUD girls that age are.....This morning I went to pick her up at practice for 8:30 and deliver the school books for the other cross country girls. Found an extra pair of shoes in the kitchen -- whoops! And then learned another had left hers in the car as well. We went with one of the girls and her dad for coffee and made our way home.....

Meanwhile Abby had 3 days off after Maggie started school. On the Wednesday before school started they had their teacher visitation and we met her friend Ashley and her mom there, then headed to Starbucks for some drinks. On to the mall (thought about a movie, but nothing we wanted to see and hadn't seen was playing). The girls spent almost 2 hours at Sephora, trying on everything while Lisa and I talked. Got some ice cream and headed home. Abby's taking the 2 available accelerated classes at her school. She has all the same teachers she had last year, but is very happy that Ashley is in all her classes this year. Tom and I were both able to go to her open house as well. It'll be an exciting year for her! She and Ashley are going to spend a day at Maggie's school September 30 to get a taste for what that will be like. And Abby was able to miss all the noise yesterday by going home and spending the night with Ashley (big surprise!).

And while I'm not quite back into the school schedule, I am enjoying myself. Was able to treat myself to a day off Thursday and saw a movie with Lisa -- "One Day" with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. And now I'm reading the book (hope to finish today). Tomorrow after church Maggie and I are going to a picnic for the cross country team and then it'll be back in the swing again.....

Enjoy the rest of summer!

9 August 2011 Update

It's been a whirlwind month here. Summer is often about relaxing, but it seems ours has been full of activity and stress, although we have managed to have some fun as well!

My mom came down for a couple days a few weeks ago. She was dragged to my yoga class and managed to do very well -- since she's VERY fit, I wasn't surprised! She took Abby back to North Carolina with her for a week alone. While Abby was there by herself they went to Carowinds Amusement Park with my sister and her kids and rode lots of rides. They also enjoyed boating and swimming and she got to spend the night at my sisters' with my niece who is 2 years younger than Abby. The girls get along really well and always have fun playing together!

Maggie and I were able to join them in North Carolina a week later. Unfortunately Tom wasn't able to join us. His dad's health has been failing for the past few months and after Tom took us to the airport he drove (once again) back to Houston as his dad had been admitted to the hospital again, this time with pneumonia. It was sad to see Tom go and know that I was heading to have fun while he was most likely heading to see the end of his dad's life. However, as we all know in our heads, life does go on. For the fun part, Maggie and I arrived in Charlotte without incident and mom, dad and Abby picked us up at the airport to head to my sisters'. We all went out for Japanese food and had a good time. Then the girls and my parents headed up to their house where we were staying. They all went swimming but I stayed in -- suffering a NASTY cough. On Sunday my cousin Amanda joined us at mom and dad's and we spent most of the day in the water. There was some boating involved as well. It's always fun to see Amanda! Monday my parents took us to enjoy a man-made white water rafting -- a GREAT way to see if you like it before travelling/paying to go on a "real" trip. The girls LOVED it. We did 2 rounds of rafting, each about an hour long. The place had good food as well. We tried to go on the zip line, but after over and hour in line we'd only moved a short bit forward. Sigh. Next time, perhaps. We were all really tired that evening!

On Tuesday my sister and her kiddos came up to mom's house. More time in the water, followed by a photo session for the 4 kids. Mom and Kris took them (I was kindly asked by my girls to stay home!) and then dad and I met them all for dinner. Kristin and I then headed to her house and mom and dad took the 4 kids home. Wednesday Kris and I went shopping at the outlet mall. We were there over 6 hours and completely exhausted (and broke!) afterwards. Back to mom and dad's for a bit. Kristin took Mackenzie home that evening for a dental appointment in the morning. They came back Thursday and we were all again in the water. We had BBQ for supper and all spent the night. Friday morning Kris and her kids went home. The rest of us went for movies -- dad and the girls saw Harry Potter and mom and I went for Crazy, Stupid Love. Met up at Starbucks afterwards and back home for a Chinese dinner. And then Saturday the girls and I flew home.

Meanwhile, Tom and all his siblings gathered in Houston. On Sunday his dad and Kay met with the hospice folks and Ray decided it was time for him to enter hospice care. He'd been suffering from chronic leukemia for several years and the past 6 months has been a series of transfusions and repeated infections and hospitalizations. His courage in choosing his fate is amazing and the bravery with which the whole family faced his death is admirable. They brought him home from the hospital and set him up there. Ray maintained his personality until he became too fatigued to do so -- Tom indicated that the hospice company was called "Compassionate Care" -- in typical Ray Webb fashion, when they showed up he announced to the nurse that he was "ready for some compassionate care". He quickly became more and more fatigued, but all were comforted by each other's presence. Ray died Thursday evening with his wife and 5 children by his side, quietly and peacefully. The entire family are gifted by the knowledge of his bravery and the peace with which he faced death. One of my mother-in-law's brothers remarked at the wake that Ray "had his bags packed and was ready to go" to heaven. Would that we could all face death so bravely and peacefully.

After the girls and I returned Saturday, we repacked to go to Houston on Sunday. Saturday evening Maggie and I had tickets to join a friend of hers and her mom to see "Rent" at a local theater. It was a great production and we enjoyed both the show and each other's company. Plan to joint them in the future for other shows! Abby stayed home and I checked in with her at intermission and as we were heading home after the show. I think she's more comfortable at home than I am leaving her at night alone!

The three of us left for Houston Sunday morning. We made good time and arrived at the hotel about 3pm. Tom called and planned to join us at the hotel and we'd go to the wake together. As we were getting ready we realized that Maggie's dresses had been left at home. Whoops! We called Tom and communicated a change in plans -- necessity to find a store to buy two new dresses. I managed to not only find a store, but the mall (with my rusty knowledge of Houston and complete unfamiliarity with the Lake Jackson area)! Went to Penney's as we'd had recent success there and power shopped. Within 20 minutes we'd found 2 dresses. AND they were one sale! AND one is appropriate for a school dance. Meanwhile Tom found us at the mall and followed us back to the hotel for a quick change. We piled into his car and headed to the church for the services. Afterwards we were back at Kay's house to gather with family. Abby ended up going with her cousin Rachel to spend the night there, and Tom, Maggie and I went back to the hotel to sleep.

Monday was an early wake-up and we met back at Kay's for breakfast. We all headed to the church for the 10am service. I think we were all comforted by the fact that Ray had "welcomed" his death as a relief from his suffering, which made it not-so-tragic. After the burial there was lunch at the church and we again headed back to Kay's with some of the family headed home. The girls and I left this morning (Tuesday) to return to New Orleans as Maggie has registration Thursday as well as mandatory cross country practice all this week. We made it home and to the grocery by 4pm, and I've completed 3 loads of laundry (enough for today). Unfortunately discovered that we'd left Maggie's glasses at the hotel, but my phone call showed that they'd been turned it and Tom thankfully agreed to pick them up tomorrow. Always something.

And our two interesting/funny travel stories -- on the way to Houston we were backed up in traffic. I noticed smoke ahead and as we got closer we saw a car completely engulfed in HOT fire (we could feel it and the car was in the median between the freeway lanes). Thankfully it appeared that no one was injured, the one girl crying appeared to be upset about the loss of her vehicle rather than a person and there was no ambulance in sight. On the way home we had another traffic back-up. This time, as we hit where the police vehicles were one car got impatient and decided to cut across the grass to the adjoining access road. A cop immediately boarded his motorcycle and, with a smile on his face, headed off to follow the car. A mile or so up ahead we saw the car pulled off with the cop giving him a ticket! Meanwhile, we were back going at speed......guess it doesn't pay to cut through the grass, no?

And one more item -- Maggie's caught the cold I've been fighting. But now she's got a fever as well. Hopefully she's better tomorrow AND hopefully none of her cousins/family gets it.

Please offer a prayer for my mother-in-law (and the rest of Tom's family) that she is comforted in her loss. She's a strong woman (her elder daughter died from a car accident at 17 and Kay's amazing in her strength to get beyond that), but she's hurting.

Here's to a good back-to-school season!