Tricia – Page 21 – House of Horne

June 12, 2008

Hubbub at House of Horne

Early this morning alley workers arrived to rework some sections of the concrete behind our house which apparently were not soundly constructed during the Alley Rebuild of 2007-2008. They originally showed up this past Saturday, during the Bridal Shower of 2008 (more on that another time) and began the loud and smelly work of cutting through cement whilst 27 fashionably dressed women drinking champagne punch watched them with interest through the windows along the back of our house. The Bride-to-be of course appreciated the extra drama and excitement which this added to her special day. Thankfully she is my sister, and quite used to the antics and craziness which is life around here!

The timing wasn’t supposed to work out like this, but then you don’t get to plan these things. Three weeks ago we drew up a contract for a fence rebuild around our backyard. Our charming picket, while lovely to look at:

is pushing the 25 year old mark, and Jay has resorted to holding it together with rubberbands and scotchtape. So, it was time to say goodbye.

Today while the rather moody city workers laid rebar in preparation for pouring cement, who should arrive but our wonderful fence folks for their first day of work, and of course they needed to be in the same exact spot as the alley laborers. And the alley men were none too happy about it. I got grumped at by the foreman (who by the way had assured me on Saturday afternoon during the bridal shower, that all the pouring of cement would be completely finished on Monday and our fence guys could be back there working with no problems by the end of this week) who told me I’d best hold off on constructing my fence (but sir, we already had, they were supposed to begin construction on Monday, remember, but you told me not to?) or else. Huh. I told the fence workers I was sorry for the trouble, especially after I’d already asked them to postpone their work earlier in the week.

Regardless, the fence teardown commenced in the midst of the alley work and no one threw any punches (or bits of picket fence) that I could see. Heheh. About an hour later, our sprinkler service showed up to repair a line we unfortunately nicked while sodding part of the back yard a few weeks ago. They turned on the various sprinkler zones to verify the source of the leak, and promptly gave the fence workers a bit of a bath, which maybe they appreciated – it is almost 90 degrees out! Even so, I found myself apologizing yet again to the guys from Zarate Fence, as I feel they will be more than tired of this job before it’s even begun at this rate.

But as I write this, things are calming down. The alley workers are almost done with the cement behind our yard, and have moved just next door, and are making noise and such behind our neighbor’s house now, so the area is clear for fence work. The sprinkler dudes have repaired the nicked line and also informed me that our pipes are not really dug deep enough for sodding/planting purposes, so we’d best be careful when doing any future landscaping. Brilliant, but I regress.

Work continues on the fence, and in another week’s time, if all goes as planned (hah!) maybe we’ll have pictures of a brand spankin’ new fence to share with you. For now, I leave you with an early picture of the teardown:

June 11, 2008

Mommy’s Little Helper + Deck Spruce-Up

Just so’s you all know: Josiah has a pretty sweet side to him too. When he’s not making messes and being ornery!! This morning I walked outside and found him doing this:

He was watering all the new little plants I put in last week! No one told him to; but he’s seen me go turn on the garden hose and sprinkle all these tender plants each day, so I guess he figured he’d take care of that chore for me today. What a helpful boy!!

For a bit of history, when we bought the house, this was the place the previous owners let their dogs sleep. It was a real mess, full of dirty hay (for dog bedding??) and looked like this:

Early this year after the deck redo was complete, I finally got down to the business of cleaning out the hay and other debris.

We pulled brick after brick after brick out from underneath the hay.

I had lots of good help.

And some folks who just wanted to play in the dirt, but hey that’s cool too.

After our hard work, it was at least free of junk, and tidy-looking. But since January, it has sat feeling rather lonely and empty.

Until last week: I visited a local nursery and got some advice on what to plant here in hopes that we could keep it alive despite mostly shade and no sprinkler system feeding this area. I wanted as many evergreen perennials as would work so as to minimize effort/expense in the future. Among other things I planted a jasmine vine which I am hoping will happily climb and bloom all over this cute little birdy trellis I painted black (I love my trellis!):

And a Japanese Holly Fern, a Gardenia, Curly Red Coral Bells, and some Purple Shamrock.

I have yet to choose a plant for the corner, where I’d like something that will grow somewhat tall, yet narrow enough that it does not cover the kitchen window and block light from coming in. I definitely want to put something evergreen here. If any of my wonderful, green-thumbed readers have suggestions, please speak up! I need all the gardening help I can get.

Looks like Josiah knows that, and it’s a good thing he’s jumped in to help with the efforts to keep my little plants alive and thriving. Let’s hear it for Mommy’s Little Gardening Helper!

June 9, 2008

A Picture is Worth….

…so much in this case that I don’t even know that this one needs a caption. But hey, captions are fun. So come on, everyone, give it your best shot.

May 27, 2008

Sweet, Beautiful Sleep…How Thou Dost Elude Us

See these four cute, angelic-faced creatures? Aren’t they sweet all snuggled together and ready for bed in their various nighttime attires?

Who would believe, looking at these four cherubic little faces, that these dear children are the cause of night after sleepless night for their poor dear parents? Parents, who despite their youthful good looks, cannot deny the fact that they are continually aging, and feeling the need for more rest for their weary bodies. The dark blotches underneath our eyes are a testimony to the nighttime antics around House of Horne, and except for one blissful night of uninterrupted sleep that happened a few days ago, we parents cannot recall another night in the past many, many weeks around here that we were not wakened by at least one incident in the wee hours of the night. So we are feeling sleep-deprived, despite the fact that we are more than two and half years out from having a newborn in the house. And this at a time which is, perhaps even more so than usual, pretty busy around here.

Popular themes in nighttime wakings include (but are by no means limited to) bad dreams, bed-wetting (through your diaper if you are the two year old and through your Spiderman boxer briefs if you are five – even though you haven’t wet your bed in literally almost a year’s time), coughing spells, stomach aches, night terrors (this is really actually quite sad despite my attempt at humor — Nicolas has suffered continually since January with ongoing, very awful night terrors), and various requests from the two-year-old to “sleep in your bed with you” just because “I want to” at 3am. Ugh. Continuous wakings throughout the night do nothing to improve my looks or my countenance, and it has been more of a struggle of late to hold my frustrations and tendency toward impatience in check.

So…why do I take the time to emote (albeit mildly) about this on our usually rant-free site here at House of Horne? I don’t know…running out of interesting fodder? Not really. But, I told Jay the other day that I really do love this stage of life with relatively young children. Mind you, I think I made this statement after that one night where we were not woken up by children, but even so. I love our life, sleep-deprivation and all, and would not exchange it if you gave me the option.

Despite the physical exhaustion that is often a part of parenting young ones, it is a precious time, and one I do not want to miss, no matter how tired I am. I feel as though we are given a gift in watching these little people grow and mature, and in having a huge part in shaping whom they become. Being their parents is hard, hard work, but is it also wonderful fun, and heaps blessing after blessing upon our lives. I pray, despite sleep deprivation which will most likely continue, that we will parent these children well. That God blesses our efforts, feeble and stupid though they sometimes are. And yes — since you asked —yes, after everything else, I do pray for sweet sleep as well…maybe someday.

May 26, 2008

Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day weekend has always held special significance for Jay and I. Along with the rest of the U.S.A., we are thankful for the men and women who have sacrificed to help give us the freedoms we enjoy each and every day.

On top of that (but in no way to top that), Memorial Day weekend marks the time we first met, fifteen years ago, when Jay and two other Rice undergrads visited my family’s church in North Houston. Two years later, on Memorial Day weekend, Jay and I were married, so each year our anniversary falls right around this holiday weekend.

Perhaps it is only fitting then that we ended up living in a neighborhood that “does it up big” for this holiday. Each year there is a wonderful parade and celebration honoring our veterans and those who serve our country. It is a great day that brings folks together and fosters community like I have not seen before in any place I’ve lived. Last year was our first Memorial Day in this house, and our family was honored to be asked to march at the head of the parade carrying the all-important sign:

This year was even better, first, because Grammy Ruth got to enjoy the parade too (she was still suffering from her Meniere’s last year and was too sick to be here) and second, because all our children had the fun of riding the train in the parade, which they thought was better than walking the whole route. Go figure.

After the parade, we enjoyed a cookout with even more family and friends back here at the house. It was a great day. And so many pictures were taken that it is fitting to add another album to our sidebar!

Happy Memorial Day!!

May 20, 2008

Dear Uncle Russ and Aunt Joan,

Thank you for our wonderful sweatshirts! We love them. They are cozy and warm, and they look great!

And this summer when it is 100 degrees outside we will gaze at our Cape Cod sweatshirts and think about the cooler weather that will surely come again. Someday….

May 15, 2008

It is with Great Excitement That I Introduce You to….

…..Lucy!!

At least, that’s what we voted last evening to name this furry creature who appears to have taken up residence here at House of Horne.

Personally, I am a bit dubious that the name will stick. We’ve been calling her Dixie for six weeks now. And despite a very democratic process there is one member of the household (who shall remain unnamed) who, every time the dog is referred to as Lucy yells “No! Her name is Dixie!” A real team player, that one.

So anyway, we shall see. Since we came up with this name ourselves, there will be no prizes given to our wonderful participating readers. Sorry, folks. But kudos to everyone who chimed in – we have loved reading your interesting suggestions. I think it is fair to say that Lucy received the greatest amount of positive reaction, so in our book you are all winners!

Here’s to many happy years with ole Dixie, er…I mean Lucy!!

May 12, 2008

Weekend In New Jersey!

Yes, that’s right: on Friday, I hopped aboard a plane! Thanks to those week-long business trips to China and France that Jay used to take on behalf of his job, Abigail and I had free plane tickets for a weekend trip to my home state, where much of my family still lives. The reason for our visit this time was my little sis’ Bridal shower given by several members of her wonderful fiance’s family and a lovely aunt of ours. We had so much fun, saw extended family that we hadn’t seen in many, many years, and met quite a few of Keith’s relatives, all of whom we enjoyed greatly. Jay and the boys bonded back here on the home front, and it was nice to come home to everyone fed, bathed, and happy!

I took a few pictures of our weekend, which you can see here on our picasa site. Here are just a couple.

This is Abigail and I with my little grandmother, Lolly, as we call her. It’s been four years since I’ve seen Lolly so we were thrilled to spend the day with her.

And here is the happy bride-to-be modeling a new creation from a very talented cousin-to-be of hers, who painstakingly molded a paper plate, tissue and ribbon into a thing of beauty that was only more lovely when worn atop my sister’s head.

And to see Sandra’s album of pictures from the shower, click here. Enjoy!

May 8, 2008

Airing Our Dirty Laundry

Yesterday the little boys and I drove a very full carload of donations from our school class over to the wonderful folks at Wycliffe Bible Translators. The ministry has a little boutique on site, where they sell donations of clothing, housewares, etc to raise money for their nonprofit organization. The third grade visited Wycliffe as part of a field trip earlier this year, and our service project for the year centered around supporting this international ministry.

It’s a pretty long drive down to Wycliffe, and since I had the kids with me, we unloaded things pretty quickly so we could return to school for afternoon carpool. And somehow, in the midst of dropping my huge carload of stuff to these good people, I managed to donate our family’s dry cleaning. A very big bag of dry cleaning. With the only pairs of dress pants that still fit my sweet husband who has lost 15 pounds in the past few months.

I wasn’t aware of what I had done till this morning when I realized the bag of cleaning was absolutely gone, and I dreaded telling Jay. Feeling utterly stupid, I slunk into the bathroom where he was brushing his teeth, and relayed that I had donated all his clothes to a ministry. He looked at me dumbfounded for several seconds, and then just burst out laughing.

And that is how you know you have a great husband: instead of being angry at you for sending all his clothes to a ministry, he laughs and thinks it’s the funniest story he’s heard in weeks. I’m glad he can laugh; I am so angry at myself I feel like crying. I cannot wait to tell the volunteers at Wycliffe that I need to take back my donation! Here’s hoping they haven’t already sold our dirty laundry to some unsuspecting patron.

Updated to Add: Great news! Our bag of dry-cleaning has been found – hooray!! and my wonderful sister saved me another long round trip down to Wycliffe by running over there on her lunch break from work, and rescuing all our clothes, not one of which had been sold yet. Thank you, Sandra!

May 7, 2008

These Babies…They Just Keep On Growing Up!

Another child of mine has passed the huge milestone of graduating from pre-school. I remember distinctly when Jonathan finished preschool and I knew he’d be entering Kindergarten the next year. And he just felt too old, too soon.

Today was our last day of Chapel School, a sweet preschool coop which the little boys and I have loved greatly this year. We have made new friends, gotten to know some old friends better, and been very blessed by the loving and fun environment that is Chapel School. While we will not return next year, I hope when Josiah is older, that he and I can perhaps someday enjoy time again at Chapel School.

Along with our end of year picnic (held inside due to the rain), there was Chapel School graduation. And so I give you pics of our proud little graduate —

Here he is after passing through the streamers, waiting patiently while his cap and leigh are put on him:

A close-up of the grad with his special “diploma”:

And one more…just for fun!!

Congratulations, Nicolas! Kindergarten, here we come!!