Living in Munchkinland

Today Davis' new elementary school held their Early Act First Knight award ceremony. This is a character education program sponsored by Rotary Clubs across the US> The program is based on the ancient code of chivalry and the students learn about responsibility, respect, friendliness, compassion, perseverance, tolerance. discipline, confidence. and honesty. They have a little lesson on one of those topics a month for ten minutes each a day. This month was responsibility. Davis was nominated by his teacher to win the award for his class this month. It was a very moving and very sweet ceremony. Davis had no idea it was coming. Mom, Dad, G.G., Gramp and Michael and I showed up and they kept us in the conference room with other parents until show time. Then they brought us in to the cafeteria where the kids were all waiting. They had a suit of armor on the stage with a red carpet and a kneeling pillow. The principal came out and they all recited the four way test:

When I looked at my fall calendar at the end of summer, I realized we only had one weekend free to go to the beach. I asked Mom if we could use the condo and she said it was free. We marked it on the calendar. On Thursday, sick as dog and just home from NYC, I decided I couldn't go. On Friday I was still sure we weren't going, but Michael sat down with me at lunch and convinced me we could do it. He promised he would be super dad. So I packed and loaded up the car and we all drove down to Port Aransas Friday evening. The kids were thrilled. They knew that Sadie and Charlie and Rowan and Brynn were also going to be down there and they wanted to play with them! We got to the condo in time for me to make supper and go to sleep. Saturday was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining and the beach sand was almost white and the water was almost blue. The weather was in the mid 80's with a nice breeze. There was no seaweed and there were no jelly fish. We brea

So the sickness got worse. Each day I expected to wake up better and instead I felt worse. My throat hurt and the cough got worse and then my chest felt tight everytime I took a breath. And I had no voice whatsoever. I went from sexy to froggy to just a whisper. I finally went to the doctor yesterday and was told I had bronchitis and laryngitis. He gave me an inhaler, an antibiotic and some wonderful, lifesaving cough syrup full of codeine and antihistamine. I can sleep now! I slept last night and then woke up for a couple of hours and then slept for another two hours. I feel weak and I have no appetite, but I feel much better and I'm back to froggy voice again. Hopefully I will be well by this weekend and that no one else will catch this evil thing.

We had a wonderful five days in NYC. We left early Thursday morning and got there mid afternoon. We had called to have an SUV pick us up, but when we got there, we had a limo waiting! We drove into the city, dropped mom and dad off at the Excelsior and headed to our hotel, Dream. We had chosen this hotel, because we could use some AA miles to bring down the cost on it. It had a great location, 55th and Broadway. Inside it was very South Beach. The room was as small as a cruise ship, but it had this fun, blue uplighting and a good bed. It was a party hotel, with huge lines outside on the weekend trying to get in the bar and loud, late night parties in the halls. We won't be staying there again, though we'd love to stay in the same location. We had every subway accessible within four blocks and we could walk to both Central Park and Times Square easily. We had dinner Thursday evening at Ocean, a great seafood restaurant across from the Museum of Natural

Here's how the weekend was supposed to go: Friday afternoon- playdate with montessori friends at Jumpy Place Friday evening- Dinner out with daddy Saturday morning- kid birthday party Saturday afternoon- Marchelle and Marc over for visit Saturday evening- kids at my parents for sleep over, go to Austin for drinks and dinner at cool bar and Texas Roller Girl Championship to celebrate Cheris' birthday. Here's how it really went: Friday afternoon- Davis has melt down at Jumpy place. We leave early. Friday evening- Davis spikes fever, we cancel dinner plans. Davis goes to bed early. He wakes up vomiting an hour later. We move him our room and stay up with him holding the bucket until 3:30 in the morning while trying to keep his fever down to 102. He then proceeds to moan all night and none of us sleep. Saturday morning- cancel all plans. Davis sleeps all morning, but fever breaks. Saturday afternoon- Davis feels all better!, But we go to Urgent care, because Da

My dad's tribute concert was on Sunday. I don't know if I have the right words to describe it. It was a big deal around here. Denise worked so hard to make it happen and did a great job. Starting last week, all the attention on the ranch shifted to the event. We walked through the venue on Thursday. Friday people started arriving. The combination of dove hunting opening weekend and dad's event was a huge draw and we had a lot of ranch visitors! Saturday we made assembled a hundred fifty gift bags. I visited with family and friends. Sunday we welcomed more family and friends to the ranch and I went early to the venue to move hundreds of tables and chairs up and down and all around. We got pretty and lined up the sitter and dashed off on Sunday afternoon to get the flowers for Denise and Nancy and get to the venue before my parents arrived so we could be there when my dad saw his street sign. They named the street in front of the Texas Music Theatre

We celebrated Labor Day a bit early on Saturday with our friends. We met up at our friends, BG and Jamaal's house, and then all walked up to the San Marcos river where we grabbed more toobs and plopped into the water. We made a giant flotilla of at least thirty with half of those being kids. The water was wonderfully cool and we all had a marvelous time. Davis got to try the rope swing and Michael enjoyed the waterslide at the end of the river. After we floated, we walked back to the house and had a wonderful buffet and grill out. We were all hungry and we chowed down. After we ate, the grownups all relaxed and chatted while the kids made lots of noise in the big room. It was a great day with our friends.