This year, Mary decided she wanted a sleepover birthday party. I tried to persuade her to have a party at KC's Nutty Roller, Chuck e Cheese, Miller's Gymnastics, or anywhere other than our house. I like the idea of paying for someone else to provide the entertainment and clean up afterwards. Mary could not be budged, so we invited some friends over and I tried hard to remember what birthday parties at home looked like.
Her birthday party was actually a lot of fun and the girls had a blast. We played Bingo, passed the parcel, made bracelets, burst a pinata, ate pizza, made ice cream sundaes, and watched movies.
Among the favorite gifts were a make-it-yourself book of paper dragons, beautiful flowers from daddy and a kitty hat from Ms. Nora.
Mary's birthday marks the beginning of my favorite time of year. This year, we spent Thankgiving with some friends who rustled up a yummy feast. The turkey was delicious and Mary made some new doggy friends. The boys ended the evening dirt biking around the desert behind our house. It was a very enjoyable day with fun people and an air of relaxation.
Around this time, we pigsat for some friends and decided that, as cute as guinea pigs look, we didn't ever want to own any. I have never seen an animal poop quite so much. We would happily pigsit again, but such an animal would not survive long living under Anna's watchful, playful/hungry eyes.
Later that month, Mary and I went to see Little Shop of Horrors at Midland High School. We had to leave at intermission because Mary thought it was too scary. There must be a name for Mary's phobia of ever-so-slightly "scary" movies and plays (she almost couldn't make it through E.T. either). While Googling it, I came across Anatidaephobia - the most bizarre phobia I have ever heard of. The Greek word, anatidae, means duck. Anatidaephobia is the fear that you are being watched by ducks. That wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, you are being watched. By a duck. You would think that, with my background, I would have come across this phenomenon, but this devastating psychological problem is completely new to me. Mary's seemingly irrational fear of very slightly scary movies and plays doesn't concern me any longer. Obviously, there are far more debilitating phobias out there.
Incidentally, we also went to see Annie at the community theater and that wasn't scary at all.
Mary won an award. I have never seen her so excited as she was when I opened the letter inviting me to the award ceremony. She had no idea what the award was for, but she didn't care. She was getting an award and, according to her, she had been waiting for one of these letters "forever". I just hoped the award wasn't for something lame like "You wore dress code all semester!!".
It was an academic excellence in math award. Go Mary!
Mary also appeared in her first violin concert at school. Not quite ready for the bow, she plucked her way through a Christmas ensemble.
Andrew and I went to the <insert name of some geology organization> party. It was held at Frank Suttles house/lair on the outskirts of Midland. I drooled over the pool and outside living area, while Andrew drooled over the garages filled with cool cars, which is where most of the men spent the evening. Andrew had possession of the camera, so these are our party pictures:
Andrew left Concho for another opportunity with a very small, very new oil company, BVX. His new job title is Vice President of Exploration, but he prefers Commander in Chief of Geology, or, simply, Chief. The weekend before his start date, we took a trip to Dallas with BVX to watch the Baylor vs Texas Tech football game. I graduated Tech, so I figured I would be supporting them. Truth be told, I would support whichever team I could borrow some shirts for. Such is the depth of my team loyalty. Luckily, my colleague Yvonne is a strict Tech fan and she kitted us out with shirts and hoodies and helped us look the part!
Unfortunately, Andrew accidentally wore Baylor colors, so we looked like a family feud.
This was my first ever football game, and it was a lot of fun! However, we had a nice, comfy BVX box with food and drinks provided, so the 7 hours we were there were not as painful as they probably would have been if we had regular seating. Only football can make 15 minutes last for 89. Football is an all-day event!
Mary was super excited to see Tech play a good game in the first quarter. Later, when Tech began to succumb, Mary wanted to turn her shirt inside out. Such is the depth of her team loyalty.
I was very impressed with the half time show. Baylor's band made several tributes to the military services; this one was a moving submarine and, in person, it was amazing!
Next time, I want regular seating so that I can be on the big screen.
We spent the next day hanging around downtown Dallas.
We visited the aviation museum at Love Field airport.
It was time to decorate for Christmas and make some yummy treats and gifts!
The next day, the garland fell off and spent the rest of the festive period in a pile to the right of the front door.
Mary's dance class participated in Yuletide at the Yucca again. This meant that I got to watch the first tech rehearsal, the second dress rehearsal, and both of the Saturday shows.
Inherently, I also got to watch all of the other dances four times. Including what I have come to refer to as the flag dance (all they did was walked around in circles!), and the please-poke-my-eyes-out-now scarf dance (all they did was put on their scarf and then take it off again, for what felt like 28 minutes!). With all due respect for the effort and hard work these dancers put into their performances, I have never been so bored in my entire life. Other than the multiple replays of these strange "dances", Yuletide at the Yucca was overall enjoyable.
I invited Tonia and her girls to watch the 7pm Saturday show and she observed that this dance was probably some version of elaborate Karate/martial arts training; wipe-on/wipe-off, scarf-on/scarf-off.
In other festive news...
We had some extreme weather causing school closures and a layer of ice on anything exposed.
BVX gave Andrew a new truck, so now we have 4 vehicles, which is ridiculous. We can't sell the Audi because it's Andrew's favorite car and it's the "nice" car. We can't sell the blue truck because it has great 4x4 and we use that (the Ford 4x4 is, surprisingly, not that great). We can't sell my car because I want to drive it until it dies and then buy a Highlander for me so that I can buy a bigger camper. To be continued...
The grass turned into a field of ice globs and the bushes were covered in ice webs. Actually, the bushes were still covered in Halloween webbing and this was my reminder to remove it.
Mary found an ice necklace! Then she put herself to work clearing the path.
Mary and I attended Science Night at the Museum; Space Escape.
Mary tried Nutella for the first time. How is it possible that my ten year old has never eaten Nutella?!
She didn't speak the whole time that she was in heaven.
I baked banana bread for the first time and it looked delicious but tasted disgusting.
I baked PB cookies for the first time and they looked disgusting but tasted delicious.
1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, bake at 375 for 10-15 mins.
Mary got an award for excellence in writing and Andrew attended this awards ceremony as I had a meeting for work. An hour in, I received a text from Andrew to say he doubted this ceremony would only take 30 minutes as they were now handing out the "You breathed all semester!" awards. I agree, too many awards. Only 6 second graders were left sitting in the audience when they handed out the A honor roll awards (poor kids!). If you're a GT school, don't hand out A honor roll awards. Or, prepare the parents so they can take the day off work.
As soon as school got out it was time to pack for our Christmas vacation to Colorado!
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