the last game of the season

Catcher's last soccer game was one of those days in Austin where the morning temperature was the high for the day. When we left the house at 8:30am and it was 64 degrees in our neighborhood, I had no idea there was a cold front moving in that would drop the temperature by 10 degrees when we reached our destination of a soccer field in North Austin just 20 minutes later (actually, more like 30 since I missed our exit). I'm no meteorologist, but this is how the weather goes on such occasions: the morning starts out mild yet chilly, a crazy arctic wind blows in from somewhere, and the day gets progressively colder until you're wondering why you left the house without your hat and mittens. That is, if you even own a hat and mittens because this is Texas, after all.

Needless to say, I was underdressed in my light sweater and jean jacket--even with a scarf wrapped eight times around my neck--so I spent most of the game huddling with a group of similarly dressed, underprepared moms (yay! I wasn't the only one) instead of on the sideline documenting the last game of Catcher's first year of Junior Academy. The players were so wind-whipped and frazzled by the end of the game that I couldn't persuade anyone to take a team picture. We'll just have to rely on our memories to remind us this was the year that Catcher had a Rocket and a Boone and a Zaf on his team--a bit whacky, even by Austin standards.

belated halloween

The weather didn't cooperate on October 30th, the date the annual Lee Halloween PTA carnival was originally scheduled, so they held a make-up "Fall" Carnival last night. Even almost a month after Halloween, it's still fun to get dressed up and run around like maniacs at the school after-hours. And there's never a bad time for a cake walk (or cake run if your name is Tillie).

snapshot shenanigans

It's been a busy week in the world of preschool fundraising and PTA volunteering. So busy, in fact, I've almost forgotten we're going to Disney World next week! (I said almost.) This was Scout last Friday evening following her first "Geography Day" at school as we arrived at Catcher's soccer game. This is kind of how I've been feeling the whole week:

Tillie talks to squirrels. For real. I started this game with her at the beginning of the school year where I would ask her what the squirrels were doing on our walk home after dropping off Catcher and Scout: are the squirrels having a picnic today? What are they bringing? Are the squirrels having a meeting? Uh-oh...looks like that one is late to the meeting. It all started as a tactic to distract her from the fact that she's three and a-half and the one mile round-trip to school and back can cause aforementioned three (and a-half) year-olds to scream and yell and stomp their feet ("It's too far!"). Eventually Tillie forgot how miserable she was on these walks, and now she stops to talk to the squirrels. And sometimes she yells at them...instead of me.


Yesterday Scout emerged from her classroom dressed as such and asked me if she looked like a pilgrim. I'll leave that one up to interpretation.

and then i found my photos

It only took two weeks and a phone call to Apple support for me to uncover the photos that were lost (but not really lost) on my computer. I've spent more time than I care to remember on the phone with customer service representatives over the past week--remember when the internet was gone for five days?--and I would be remiss in not saying that my conversation with Todd this afternoon was most pleasant. It took a while to diagnose the problem, but he was pleasant and helpful the entire time. And he also never made me feel like an idiot because I don't speak the proper techo-lingo. Apple Customer Service: 1; U-Verse Customer Service: 0.

So this is how Halloween went down this year. If you'll remember that after months of pleading, the ladies and I were unable to convince Catcher to be the scarecrow to our Dorothy, Tinman and Lion respectively. He ended up as a Ninja for Halloween 2015, and, in true Ninja fashion, I was only able to get one picture of him as he darted in and out of the crowded avenues of Hyde Park. Also in true Ninja fashion, he went missing for a short period when our entire group returned to a friend's house and he was nowhere in sight (literally no where in sight, not figuratively in Ninja pretend world no where in sight).

Depending on who you ask, Catcher may or may not have been actually "lost." When we "found" him, he told us "I wasn't lost. I knew where I was." It turns out that he and a group of friends had gone to one friend's house, and then everyone (but Catcher and the one friend) went to another friend's house who lives next door to friend number one. Confusing? Not to a bunch of second-grade boys. When I first discovered he was missing, another mom assured me "He'll turn up. They always do." And he did. Then the children gorged themselves on candy, the boys ripped off their shirts and wrestled each other for an hour, and I drank wine out of a can. Happy Halloween!

catcher in the stacks

I'm still here. I still can't upload my photos onto my blog, but that wouldn't matter anyway since the Internet has been down at our house since last Friday. It's a very long story that starts with us "upgrading" to ATT Uverse, and I haven't figured out the ending yet. The middle part is us not having access to the Internet for five days in a row. 

One thing I am pretty sure of, however, is that customer service has flagged me as "that crazy lady with the Uverse angst" whenever I call.

While I sort out all my issues, technological and otherwise, here's a cute picture of Catcher from this past weekend. It was another rainy Saturday with soccer games cancelled, so our day went like this: library, flu shots, library (a different library from the first).

thursdays with tille

My computer is still not cooperating with me and gives me the mad/hungover face when I try to upload pictures to the blog. As I sit here whining about it, I'll also take a moment to entertain you with this picture of Tillie that I took this afternoon when we were going to pick up the "big kids" from school. Yes, those are rain boots peeking out from the lovely dress-up Frozen Anna costume. The feather headband is a nice accent, don't you think? Obviously her older sister has had an influence in her sartorial decisions.

pardon this interruption

I updated my computer the other day, and now everything is running super slow, and I haven't been able to upload photos to the blog. While I try to wrap my head around this technological difficulty, here is a photo that Catcher took of the girls and me last night. He couldn't be coerced into playing the part of the scarecrow, so he wasn't allowed in the picture. I'm kidding (sort of).