Fall band photos

Here are the formal photos of the Hildebrandt Honor Band and Austen's solo photo. I think there will be more taken in the spring -- maybe of orchestra, too, by then.

In the whole-band photo, Austen is in the first row of students standing on the bleachers; he's fourth from the left. (The band director is standing to the left of the students, but he's not on the bleachers!)

Austen, of course, hates these clothes -- but then he is 14 and wants to wear shorts and T-shirts all the time! But he sure looks great in these formal threads!!

Recovery!

It's taken all week to get this computer back together. Ken ran the recovery CD which essentially wiped out everything on the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Then of course, Windows had to update itself umpteen times -- and one nice result is the installation of IE7. I like the tabbed browsing feature best of all!

Then Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday were spent getting all the programs re-installed --the ones I care about, that is. I also was praying that all the data backed up on my Seagate external drive would work -- and it all did. Hooray!

Of course, help from the kitten-cats was expected, and they didn't let me down!



I'm sure happy to have everything back ... and cannot thank Ken enough for his patience and know-how.

Bummer!

On Monday, this computer crashed -- completely. Ken got it all working again by using the recovery CD (the only option since the hard drive was totally unaccessible). So I've spent the past two days putting on programs and restoring data from my back-up drive. I found out today that my last back-up was on October 24. Memo to self: Back up more frequently!!

I lost some cute pictures and one movie that didn't get uploaded to YouTube. So I'll start over today. I got a couple that may be worth posting -- how the kitten-cats were "helping" me while I've been restoring stuff on this computer!! LOL =)

One boy's Halloween haul!

Here's Austen's computer desk with his trick-or-treating haul spread out all over -- the better to pick out exactly the candy he's looking for, you know! I'm hoping all this stuff (and its trash) will disappear in the next day or so.

My re-done back yard

Here's my re-done back yard with almost half of the flagstone gone and with more lawn in its place. Now the flagstone patio is more or less in the middle of the back yard with lawn right and left and plants and trees north and south. I put the table and chairs off-center so that I can eventually get a nice lounge chair plus table and umbrella for the other side.

If you want to see the yard when it was first done, with more than half of the back yard in flagstone patio, click here.

Linehan yard

Anne and Ken's back yard is about 80% done -- the 20% not done is reserved for the future pool, whenever that is.

Meantime, between the grass and the flagstone patio, life in the back yard just improved about 1000%. Now if only all those mosquitoes from our recent rains would just die off!

On Halloween

Here are Austen and some friends just before they left the house for trick-or-treating! They were dressed as "emos" -- the emotional ones! As opposed to goths or socs or geeks or whatever is around intermediate and high schools these days. They had a great time, and they even spent their first hour herding Kira and Parker around, too!! Good kids!

Fall concert

Last Thursday, in the midst of a horrendous and damaging thunderstorm, Hildebrandt's bands held their fall concert. As usual, Austen's band (the Honor Band) played beautifully.

Austen is right in the center of these photos. It's hard to tell because of all the hair, but that's our boy!

Proud DARE graduate

Yesterday, the entire 5th grade at Parker's school graduated from the DARE program -- a 9-week curriculum which teaches youngsters about the situations in which they may find themselves regarding drugs, alcohol, etc. -- and how to say no or walk away. This may be the most valuable set of lessons these kids learn all year.

Parker is right in the middle of the first picture, showing him with his classmates. The second picture shows a very proud young man with his certificate.

Yayyy, Parker!

A shift

From now on, almost all the photos of Grace, Audace, and Ruse will be posted on their own blog! Momma Grace & Company

See you there!

Kira's reading

When I went to pick up Kira, Parker, and their neighbor pals Austin and Abbi at school the other day, I waited in the kindergarten playground area. I saw Kira come out of her building, pink backpack (SuperGirl!) on, running and reading at the same time. It's a wonder she could see where she was going!

Turns out she had taken Green Eggs and Ham to school (favorite book day?), and she was reading it to herself even after school was over. Then she climbed the jungle gym and kept on reading. She needed help with words like "could" and "would" and "anywhere" but other than that she was reading quite well on her own ... and loving it!

Photos from October 14

Here are a couple of photos I wanted to post that I took last Saturday. The first one is the window-wall with the page that announced that Austen had made it into the All-Region Band. Whenever someone posted a new set of results, there was almost a stampede of students to find out if theirs was up!

The second picture is of Austen (gray sweatshirt) with his pals as they waited for these types of announcements -- or rejoiced after the results were posted. Imagine a junior high's cafeteria filled with happy (read: yelling and screaming) 7th and 8th graders!

Grace LOVES the kitty-kitchen!

Finally, I can post photos!

Grace doesn't usually stray far from the food and water dishes! She was keeping an eye on the water dish in which I had put ice cubes (she and her boys seem to like their water COLD!); I think the crackling sound was a bit unnerving for her!

She will also seem to guard the water dish, and then drink a bit, guard some more, drink some more, etc. This can go on for quite a while, and her boys know enough not to come too near when she's in water-dish-guarding mode!

Fun li'l family!

Blogger!

Well, that's just wonderful (<~~sarcasm intended). Blogger isn't allowing me to upload pictures. Is anyone else having this problem? Probably so. I'm not usually the "lone ranger" when it comes to things like this.

I was going to post a couple of photos I took last Saturday at the all-region band competition Austen participated in. Anne posted the details here: http://www.bloghouston.net/item/4266

All I wanted to do was to post a couple of photos. Maybe tomorrow!

Cute, funny boys!

On Saturday, during housecleaning time, Ruse discovered how much FUN it is to dive into a rolled up rug! And Audace thought it was fun to jump on top of the lumpy, moving rug! Such funny boys!

If you want to see a little movie of this adventure, here it is!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9wZEN6ZHR8

Enjoy!

New experiences

Wow! Almost October. I don't think I've completely gotten used to writing 2006 on checks and other things yet! Last week was absolutely lovely, especially in the mornings. It was cooler outside than in my house. So I opened a few windows and let Grace and the boys sniff the great outdoors. That's about as outdoorsy as they'll get, though. Too many predatory critters out there at night.

And then today, the kitten-cats went to visit at the Linehans' house -- and learn to navigate the stairs, to stay off the narrow ledge over the front door, and to interact with Cabernet! When they returned home, they were completely pooped out! First Grace had to sniff all over and clean them. Now they are absolutely conked out on the couch. I may not hear from them for quite a while!

Naptime!

Kira has spent the last two days with me instead of going to school -- upper respiratory infection. Both days after lunch, we settled down on the couch to rest and read, and both days she fell asleep. Notice her guardians: Grace above, and Audace near her legs and feet!

Baseball

Ken got tickets for Anne and the three kids and me at Minutemaid Park, home of the Houston Astros. It was an experience I'd never had before -- what a nice comfortable way to watch a baseball game. In the first picture, Anne, Austen, and Parker are starting to sample the incredible spread of food that was laid out. And for a long time, we were the only people in the suite; after a while, two other families came in. Needless to say, we got the lions' share of the food! Ken did an amazing job organizing our lunch, dessert, and snacks!

Next are pictures of the stadium's interior, including a charming train that runs back and forth on the opposing wall (Anne wants the job of the engineer!); of the Astros' mascot (big bunny) with Parker, Kira, and another child from our suite; of Austen wearing a little batting helmet which had previously held a sinfully rich ice cream sundae; of Kira and Anne settling in to the front-row seats in our suite before the game actually began.

We were happy to be in a roofed stadium -- it rained outside twice during the time we were there. The stadium is very close to all the wonderful downtown skyscrapers (terrific architecture!), and there were times we couldn't see them. Then the shower would pass, and the sun would shine again.

It was a really fun experience -- a very enjoyable day -- even though the Astros didn't win.

Snoozin' away ... back to normal!

Well, that didn't take long!

Audace and Ruse have returned to their favorite napping place this morning -- and they've been up there for HOURS! Sure is peaceful around here. I could even unload the dishwasher and make some chai tea without "help"!! Amazing!

Getting back to normal!

I now have had thirteen cats as pets at various times, including the three currently residing in my house (or ... wait ... am I in theirs??), and all of them have been "altered" (as the veterinary form states!). All their various -ectomies have turned out just fine; not a problem with any of them. Why, then, do I tend to worry about every one? Hmmm. Have to cogitate on that for a while!

The boys are doing fine, although I'm keeping them in "their" room most of the time for a day or so. Grace is LOVING the freedom, I think. We watch TV together and have lots of nice quiet time. That'll end soon!! Here are a few pix of them lying around not doing much.