Can you say 'flu'?

I woke up last night at 2:40 am and said to myself "there is a hot child at my back!" 30 seconds later Giselle woke up to tell me that she hurt all over and was very thirsty. I took her temp with our temporal thermometer (which is very fragile and breaks easily - Joe has resottered the inner connections once already in the 9 months that we've owned it) and she had a fever of 101.5. I started her on Oscillococcinum and other homeopathics and she went back to sleep, albeit restlessly, for the rest of the night. All day she ran a steady 100 with a few blips up every so often and shortly before bed it was up to 102.3 - gave her some Infant Tylenol and some Vitamin C to bring it down. She and Paul took a long hot bath with some Kiss My Face bath wash and she went to bed all bundled up. Her temp was down to 100 even by the time I got Paul asleep at 9.
Needless to say, I didn't make it to the stores to finish my grocery shopping. Joe generously suggested that we could delay Thanksgiving until Friday, what a great idea!

But while sitting around all day I did manage to change the provider of all of our homeowner's insurance policies, thus saving us a few hundred dollars now and potentially saving us thousands of dollars if anything were to happen to the rental houses.

I would like to thank the makers of TiVo for making this sick day not as miserable as it could have been. And also our satellite provider DirecTV for providing us with the Disney Channel, the Family of Discovery Channels, and Noggin. And an extra special shout out to Joe who was the one to get us hooked up with all of this years ago, you are THE MAN!

TX homeschooler picked to be a Rhodes Scholar

Galveston native picked to be a Rhodes Scholar Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Pictures from the special Biscuit Brothers show

Save the Biscuits - Nov 3, 2006

Posting

So Suzanne complained to me about me needing to post more often because she checks every day and is bummed when there is nothing new posted. The funny thing is that I do the same thing - I check my blog every day and wonder why there is nothing new posted!

It's insane here currently - closing on one house in less than 2 weeks, maybe another by the end of the year, getting ready for Thanksgiving here not at a friend's house, getting school done every day, getting the green house up before it really frosts, getting 2 weeks of laundry washed AND put away, getting rid of a crib-full of clothes leftover from the homeschool clothes swap (Suzanne what size are the kids wearing?), cleaning up play-dough every morning in the playroom, getting the yard ready for winter, thinking about what the heck is going on for Christmas and how I'm going to shop for Giselle (the girl who wants EVERYTHING - well not really, just more Bitty Baby stuff, an American Girl (I say not till she's 8), more Polly Pockets, more My Tiny Pets, and a Yorkie puppy), getting all the last of the summer/fall produce frozen and put in the freezer, and did I mention closing on 2 houses?

But just as I was shutting down the kitchen for the night (oops I forgot to tend to the 2 sinks full of dishes from lunch - we had a visitor (Gayla got off of the farm for the day and dropped by for a visit) and I made spaghetti w/ a killer sauce - Giselle had 3 servings) Giselle & Paul came dancing out of the bedroom and proceeded to ballroom dance around the living room for 5 min. I got some on video. It was a nice end to a crazy day.

Oh, and the guy at the HEB checkout charged me for 2 books of stamps but only gave me one. I only asked for one so I didn't notice until I was checking the receipt 15 minutes ago that I paid for 2. They said to just come buy the Business Center and they'll give me the 2nd book.

We hit WalMart & HEB today but we still have to go to Bark N Purr tomorrow to get more dog food and to Wheatsville for our biweekly shopping there and maybe even to Whole Foods if Wheatsville doesn't have Turkey parts. Oh, and HEB to get my other stamps!

Chuy's Children Giving To Children Christmas Parade

It's next weekend. We're going, are you?
Chuy's Children Giving To Children Christmas Parade

Two From The Zoo

Giselle being eaten by a lion and Paul being eaten by a snake!

We're Trippin'

The kids and I are going to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston tomorrow to see the exhibit Best In Show: The Dog in Art from the Renaissance to Today. The drive should be fun, I think that we're going to stop off at the farm on the way there and back. My sister flew in another one of my sisters for the weekend just so that we could all hang out together - how nice is THAT!?! On Monday we are hoping to go the zoo, there's a slight chance of rain but we'll have our raincoats and umbrellas so that won't stop us. I hope that they have my favorite zoo animal!

Buy this too!

Get this too because Martha RULES!
Amazon.com: Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home: Books: Martha Stewart

Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition): DVD

Buy this today for your kids, unless you already own it! Amazon.com: Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition): DVD: Schoolhouse Rock

Halloween 2006

New-camera issues but it's us: Joe the candy giver, Natalie the trick-or-treat escort, Cinderella Giselle and Biscuit Brother Paul.

As we do every year, we carved pumpkins that were big enough for the kids to fit inside - one weighed 33 lbs the other weighed 31 lbs and they were both 47 inches around.

They ate all the candy they could last night and again this morning after breakfast then even before lunch they traded what was left for a stuffed dog and a pull-string powered truck. After dinner Giselle regretted her decision to trade in her candy so quickly for about 2 minutes - I had originally told them that we wouldn't do the trade until tonight but they insisted on doing it this morning.

A few pictures from the car shows

This guy is obviously a Tolkien fan.

The owner of this car spends too much time and money at fast food places.

The owner of the first 2 cars has a very loving wife who totally understands that as the over-worked sole-supporter of a family of 4.5 (the dog counts as half) he deserves rewards and 'ME time' whenever he feels it necessary!

Back-dating to 2 weeks ago

For Joe's 40th we took him to dinner at Trudy's South where we had some suprise guests join us. We then blindfolded him and took him to Peter Pan Minature Golf as a suprise family gift. Afterwards we went home and enjoyed a lemon tart from Central Market and opened his presents. Joe said that it was his best birthday ever! Great, how am I going to top THAT? I guess we'll just have wait till 50 to try and top 40.

car show updates

The Art Car Show bit the big one - only about 10 to 15 cars there and they were already leaving at 3 pm when we got there - it was supposed to last until 4.
Paul was screaming because he had just woken up from a nap and wanted to nurse. It was hot and we were sweaty. There was one really fun car that the kids wouldn't leave. Finally we did leave and went to eat some mini cream puffs at Vespaio's store/cafe (next door to the restaurant).

We drove home and stopped for 30 min at Joe's car show - he was showing 2 of the Caddies at the Oak Hill Cruise n Blues Car Show.
I'll post pictures of it all later today.

We might do our annual train ride today or in 2 weeks.

austin art car parade

austin art car home I think that we are going to this after the farmers market today.

So I have this pair of shoes that is now, hmmmm, 24 years old. I wore them to church on Sunday and thought that I'd take a picture of them. Well, I didn't really wear them to church - I wore them to the playground at church where Paul and I play while Giselle is at Sunday School. So the shoes, I bought them to wear with a teal taffeta dress that I bought to wear to my sister Joan's wedding in the Fall/Winter of 1982. I was the maid of honor! I recycled the dress for my Jr/Sr Prom the following Spring. Of course for that I wore my black patent leather shoes and a fuchsia taffeta sash instead of the teal sash I wore at the wedding. I've managed to keep these shoes when all other 'old' shoes have been given away because I didn't like them any more or chewed on by a dog or worn out beyond all use. I like these shoes and I'll be crushed when they wear out. Oh wait, I do have a pair of red lamb leather heels that I bought in 1984 that I still have too! It's neat to see Giselle dress up in my shoes just like I used to do with my mom's shoes, although my mom had WAY more shoes than I have now.

Yeah, if you call tasting and smelling like mold to be unusual!

Algae may affect water taste, odor; City water supply safe to drink
For Immediate Release – October 11, 2006
AUSTIN--- Austin Water Utility (AWU) officials want customers who notice any unusual taste and odor in their tap water to know that their drinking water is completely safe.
A similar taste and odor fluctuation resulted from a blue green algae die-off in the City's raw water supply in October 2004, and AWU officials believe the same cycle is occurring now. The 2004 episode lasted about two weeks.
"The water is absolutely safe to drink," said Jane Burazer, AWU Assistant Director for Treatment, adding "The algae bloom is a product of weather conditions, as well as river conditions."
She said AWU is feeding powdered activated carbon at its drinking water treatment plants in an attempt neutralize compounds that cause taste and odor variances.
"AWU will continue to monitor and test water from the lakes as it is treated and distributed to our customers," Burazer said. Check the Austin Water Utility web site: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/water/ for updates as they become available.

Joe got me a new camera!

Christmas came early at the Galletti house on Thursday. Joe came home at lunchtime and presented me with this: Olympus Stylus 720 SW underwater camera, waterproof camera, shockproof camera . Evidently the thought of me regularly using the 10 yr old HP digital camera was the final inspiration for getting a new one for me. He has a 5 yr old Nikkon digital (5 mp) that he uses on occasion that he is still relatively happy with. My poor Olympus film camera will get used less and less, and I just bought that one 3 years ago. Ahhh, modern progress.

Giselle's tooth has come out

With the help of some dental floss and a door knob, Giselle has lost her first tooth. The other tooth is almost all the way in already. The top two teeth feel like they are next to go.

This is the beautiful tooth box that we made to hold all of Giselle's teeth in - complete with the first tooth (circled in red)!

Jurassic Park

The kids were playing out front with a Rhino and a Brontosaurus this afternoon. Giselle built both animals their own park to play in - the pictures don't do the real things justice.

War Of The Worlds

Take me to your leader! And don't even try giving me cupcakes made with that fake sugar!





Our visit to the Wildflower Center on Sunday.