Author: Tricia

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And, now, introducing….

Mr and Mrs Bloggy Brunone!! You will notice that one of our links to the right has changed slightly. To our delight, our wonderful new sister-in-law, Jamison, has joined Andrew and they are now blogging together. (Jay and I think husbands and wives sharing a blog is oh so cool!!) Welcome, you two!

Oh, and we have been most remiss in not posting wedding pics of the wonderful day yet. We promise to get to it soon. For now, may we just say that we are so thrilled for the happy couple! May God bless them in their life together!

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Abigail in the Kitchen

Our eldest has learned a very useful skill the past month: how to make her own sandwich. Her favorite way to enjoy lunch these days involves her pulling the stepstool up to the kitchen counter where she concocts one of her peanut butter and jelly creations. The interesting thing though about Abigail’s sandwiches is that she doesn’t stop with mere peanut butter and jelly. Feeling the need for a little something more between her two slices of bread, she experiments each time with a new ingredient. So far, she’s added various types of crackers, potato chips, chinese noodles and marshmallows (at different times, not together in the same sandwich!!). She wanted to try chocolate chips one day, but I thought that was taking it a bit too far.

I am truly enjoying seeing her creativity at work, and those of you like me, with several young children at home will I’m sure concur with my amazement and delight over her being able to prepare her own lunch every once in a while!!

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The Summer of My Itch

It would seem in poor taste for me to go missing for some time on the blog front and then return only to post a whiney-sounding entry. Please know I do not wish to give offense by the following, however, I must tell you that among the more pleasant happenings this summer there has been a nagging little issue that just won’t go away. Oh, it fades into the background for a week here and there, but then flames up again in a most frustrating way. Today though, I feel we may have reached a turning point, so I shall recount my little woe to you now that I know there will be perhaps a tinge of hope interlaced with the grumbling.

Very early in June, during our week of VBS, I began noticing a strange amount of bug bites just under my chin. Every morning I woke up to find more of these, and within a couple days, the bites were no longer limited to my chin. My soon-to-be-sis-in-law commented that my bites looked more like a case of hives and soon others indicated to me that I’d best see a medical professional for their opinion.

Well, given the busyness of our week I did not make it to the doctor’s office until a week later, where I was diagnosed with a rather severe case of poison ivy and put on a dose of steroids to deal with it. What a mess I was. And boy, did I itch!! Happily, within a few days there were no new “spots” and in another week things were clearing up pretty well. I figured the steroids did their trick and was quite grateful for modern medecine.

Unfortunately, by a week’s time after this “cure”, I found evidence that the poison ivy was not actually all gone. And each day it got a little worse than the day before. Back to the doctor’s, only this time I went to a dermatologist, thinking a specialist would surely be able to help me. He confirmed the diagnosis, but indicated that my primary physician, who wrote the first steroid prescription, did not give me a strong enough prescription to wipe out the rash. “Oh good,” I thought, “all I need is a higher dose of the pills, maybe even a shot to get things started, and I will be rid of this problem!” After all, we were only two weeks from the huge family wedding of the summer, the arrival of tons of out of town company, and many events to see to and attend. I really did not want to continue dealing with poison ivy.

However, the dermatologist felt that another dose of steroids might prove harmful to me (too many steroids = not good) so better to wait it out (what???) and use some creams and such in the meantime till it clears. This was NOT what I was looking for. But I tried to remember he was the doctor, he went to school for the degree and all, and that I needed to follow his advice.

So I went home and obediently used my creams, and kept itching. Till another week and yes, admittedly, the rash did ease up again. I was hoping this was the last of it. The weekend of the wedding arrived and oh no!! New spots began appearing, again. As I complain about this, please know that I realize my little affliction is quite minor compared to the physical ills so many in this world suffer. And yet I admit I was growing weary of itching. And treatments that didn’t seem to work.

So, last week after the wedding was over (but while my grandmother was still in town to help watch the kids for me – Thanks Grandma!!) I went back to the dermatologist with my newest spots, seeking help and yes, drugs!! He was, I’m sorry to say, less than helpful, and actually tried to send me away again with no medicine for my plight. I wanted to cry, but instead I begged him to please try one more dose of the steroids because I felt at this point the rash just wasn’t going away, and was dubious that the creams were going to do any lasting good. He finally agreed to write a prescription, but then told me to stay out of my yard for the rest of the summer and let my husband do all the gardening while I attended to the inside chores. Helpful.

While his bedside manner and overall doctoring left me wanting, his rather insensitive comment did motivate me to try and locate what might be causing this outbreak. We’d already checked our plant beds for the wicked poison ivy but had never found any. Now we asked others to look as well, hoping someone might have some experience with the actual plant, or perhaps another form of poisonous vegetation which would help us. Today, my friends, that someone appeared, and we are very grateful he did.

The hero of our story??? David C. Good friend and veteran poison ivy hunter and sufferer. And he, upon my request, looked over our front yard, and found the evil little vine, growing happily in one of our plant beds where I had ignorantly mulched just a few weeks before. In fact, I’d carefully mulched AROUND the vine, giving it an optimum environment to grow and thrive (and yes, keep aflicting me)!! HAHAHA!!

David’s discovery of the actual plant has given me hope. Because until now we really weren’t certain where I was getting this poison ivy from, or even if it was poison ivy. Now that I know what is causing my itch, I shall wisely stay far away. This afternoon my husband went out armed with massive amounts of weed killer and obliterated the poison ivy, as well as everything in and around that nasty vine, hopefully eradicating the cause of my sufferings. He has promised to continue to fight the good fight again my plant foe, in hopes of preserving me from future itchings. And he has requested that I wait until next season to replant that particular bed with English Ivy (which was my master plan, folks), just to see that the danger has passed. So I guess a project has been lifted from my task list, at least for the time being.

After five days on this newest round of prednisone, I am still itching a lot more than I’d like. But I think things are calming down. I do hope perhaps the discovery today means that ultimately we’re seeing the end of the poison ivy for this summer. But I’ll do my best to be a bit more frequent with my blogging from here on out, so at least I can keep you all informed. Thanks for reading!!

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Suppertime at the Hornes’

Those of you out there either with small children or those of you who have raised small children will identify with the idea that many kids, though not all, have quite narrow tastes when it comes to food likes. Perhaps this is a regular part of development; I don’t know, I actually haven’t done any formal research on the topic. We here at Casa Horne have delightful children (we think!) yet they have always been “challenged” in this area. I myself was quite the finicky eater as a young child, yet as an adult I enjoy most foods put in front of me.

However, our little fussy eaters were quickly becoming difficult to the point of ill-mannered at the table. Mealtimes around here had turned into something of a battle. There was complaining, “I don’t like this!”, “I can’t swallow the food!”, “I want yogurt instead!”; general whininess, and frustration on the part of the two parents, who desperately yearned for meals to be a time of peaceful family interaction and happiness.

Jay and I finally decided something must be done. I had gotten to the point of rarely cooking foods that I knew would be turned down flat. Though I actually love to cook, I began to strongly dislike my job as the food prep person around here. And the kids certainly weren’t enjoying their meal experiences either. So, a couple of weeks ago we instituted some changes around here. I am happy to say they have been met with huge success. In the last two weeks our children have eaten foods they would never have dared to touch before this. Some of those include: yellow fin tuna, tabouli, fresh tomato, grilled mushrooms, and tomato-basil-mozzarella salad.

So, you ask, what did we do to our children?
Continue reading “Suppertime at the Hornes’”

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Kind Words for Mama

We spent much of today swimming with a large group of friends at one of the friend’s pool. What fun it was!! Though I applied sunscreen liberally to our children twice during our visit, Abigail still got a bit pink around the shoulders. So, this evening after I bathed the kids, I slathered her with after-sun lotion. As I was applying the lotion she said to me,

“You’re a cool Mommy.”

I had to ask, “Why do you say that?”

“Because you take care of me! That’s why I like you!”

Now, how can I argue with such high praise??

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Mowing for Dummies

I don’t as a rule (read “hardly ever”) perform the necessary chore of mowing our yard. In the summertime, we hire a very reasonably priced yard service to mow and edge the yard once every two weeks. Jay fills in on the off week. Given we own about a 1/4 acre of oddly shaped yard on a corner lot, it is a decent-sized job but I didn’t have quite enough respect for the task until today.

Jay has been very sick for the better part of a week now, so he has not had the energy to attend regular work most days, let alone consider the idea of mowing in this heat. Then our faithful mowing service for whatever reason picked this past Tuesday to not show up, for probably the first time ever. So we’re looking at over two week’s growth of grass in our yard and this morning I decided something had to be done. Since my brother is in town I got him to help me start the ornery mower and then I was on my own.

I learned many things during my two hour job; if you are also new to the world of mowing, maybe some of these lessons will be of help to you:

1. A mower may likely run out of gas during a large job. Repeated sputtering, hesitation to start, and ongoing stalling while moving might all be hints that you need to refill that tank.
2. Oil is a good idea, especially if the mower has not been started in over 6 months.
3. If you are not bagging your clippings, the mower will get bogged down in high grass. Take measures to dump out or shake out excess grass which accumulates under the blades. This can also be accomplished by a reverse motion now and again during the mowing process.
4. Drink lots of water. Don’t underestimate the intensity of the mowing workout and its propensity to deprive you of liquids. I think I sweated off about 10 pounds of my body’s water. I certainly felt drained when I was done.
5. It is HARD to start the mower’s engine while the mower is resting on the grass. Move to the sidewalk or driveway to give yourself a better chance of success.
6. WEAR WORK GLOVES when mowing for any extended period of time. I have blisters all over my poor hands.
7. Don’t try to cut the yard to a drastically low height when dealing with tall grass. You will stall repeatedly and become very frustrated. So will your mower.
8. If your husband or some other beloved individual usually takes care of the time-consuming and exhausting (at least in Texas heat!) task of mowing your yard, don’t forget to hug their neck and tell them how much you appreciate it!! And make sure to fix them a cool, refreshing drink when they are finished!

By way of postscript, the children were so good while I completed the mowing job. They stayed indoors, watched their movie, kept themselves out of trouble (yes, yes, I checked on them regularly) and as a special treat, were rewarded with an afternoon of splashing in our wading pool instead of having to take naps. Two and a half hours of hard playing ensured that they were exhausted by the time 7pm rolled around, so while they sleep, Jay and I are enjoying an in house date night! Later!

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Baby Makeover

Little Nicolas is almost two and as he’s been sporting a headful of white blonde curls for awhile, we decided it was time for a bigger boy haircut. Today was the day. We went to our usual kid haircut place, complete with Blues Clues videos for watching and firetrucks and other vehicles/animals for children to sit in/upon while being “shorn”. Our “baby” aged incredibly in the space of about 10 minutes but we think he looks very handsome with his new ‘do! Here are the before and after pictures. And thanks very much to the Pecks and Clemmons for helping entertain our other children while they waited!
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Guinea Pig Foster Care

Our son Jonathan, is the one among our children whom we consider to be our most “needy” in terms of time, attention, etc. Along with his neediness do come certain sweetnesses though. One of these is his extreme tenderheartedness toward animals. He gravitates toward them, even if he doesn’t know them at all, whereas he cannot often be coaxed to even look at people when he first meets them because he is so shy.

Given Jonathan’s love for animals, I jumped at the announcement his teacher sent out to her students’ families before school ended: she was looking for someone who might want to take the two class guinea pigs home for the summer. We happily agreed to this responsibility and today we brought home Wiglet and Precious. They are sisters, and are absolutely adorable.

My heart goes out to the poor wee animals for I fear that even though they are used to the sights and sounds of two and three years olds, that this transition has been traumatic for them. Being hoisted up and down stairs, in and out of cars, and from room to room as we look for the perfect place to keep them has to be annoying. And then there’s the little curly blonde-headed giant who stands outside their cage, giggling and calling, “Hi Piggies!” (that would be Nicolas). Not to mention the rather dumb-looking hairy creature who peers at them curiously, whimpering nonstop as if to say, “Aw guys, please come out and play with me!” (that would be Sid, and NO! we won’t let them play with him!).

We are excited about our newest guests and look forward to enjoying their company these next couple months. And maybe sometime soon, if we can coax them out of their shyness, we’ll take a photo and post it here for your viewing enjoyment!

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What’s in a Name?

Jay and I had a conversation with Abigail yesterday morning that made us giggle. By way of explanation, although most of you who know me call me “Tricia”, my given name is “Patricia”, and it’s what I went by almost exclusively until around age 12.

Abigail: Mommy, what was your name when you were a little girl?

Tricia: The same as it is now.

A: But what was your name?

T: Most people called me “Patricia”.

A: Daddy, what was your name when you were a little boy?

Jay: You know what my name is, Abigail.

A: Oh. So when you were a very little boy, your name was “PaJay”.

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Tricia versus the spider redux

IMG_3515_small.jpgThose faithful readers who have been with us for awhile may recall an entry from 2002 in which we recounted Tricia’s chance meeting with a rather nasty spider while attempting to take dominion of the nursery laundry pile. Today while cleaning pots for this summer’s herb garden, she came across another spider. This is the way she tells her story:

As I brushed some accumulated dirt off of one of the pots I saw a rather large black spider clinging to the side of the pot. Its legs looked pretty shrivelled up but given its body size I figured I’d better be careful, especially since Abigail was right there with me. “I’m pretty sure this spider is dead, Abigail. What do you think?” I asked her. “Hmmmm…I don’t know Mommy, it looks alive to me.” After making sure she was far away from the spider and warning her not to touch it I got a plastic sandwich bag, donned my gardening gloves and proceeded to trap the spider inside said bag.

IMG_3516_small.jpgWhile we wanted to finish potting our herbs, we decided that we would first try to find a picture of our spider on the internet. The spider was black everywhere except for a red marking on its underside, so in an effort to identify my mystery spider I typed:

“black spider red dot”.

Imagine my consternation when the first search result on google looked like this:

Black Widow Spider Pictures
… Black Widow Spider (Latrodectus … The female black widow is shiny black with a red hourglass on abdomen … The red hourglass could take the form of a red dot or many … www.surviveoutdoors.com/reference/ spiders/black_widow.asp

The picture on that web site confirmed that we were not dealing with an average little garden spider. Upon further inspection of “my” spider’s red dot, I surmised that it was indeed in the shape of an hourglass. Oh, my. And I had just had my bare hands all over that pot, within easy reach of this venomous spider. Not to mention that Abigail had been nearby the entire time as well. Feeling thankful that we were both fine, I called Jay to tell him how I’d bravely apprehended the little creature, and when he arrived home a couple hours later he felt compelled to capture our Black Widow on film. Now we can share her loveliness with all of you, dear, gentle readers. And may I assure you that I will be more careful next time I see a black spider!