Video Time!

The movie you all have been waiting for . . . The Chronicle of James, with never before seen footage. Watch the tale of James' life from ultrasound to seven months! You will be amazed! You will be stunned! At the very least, you will think he is cute!

Hint

The slideshow feature is new (and I am super excited about it!). If you click on a slideshow picture, it will take you to the actual web album. There the pictures will be larger, and you can read their captions. Happy browsing:).

Out-of-This-World Vacation

Howdy, y'all!!! Despite living in Texas most of my life, I had never been to the Gulf of Mexico. So, Monday and Tuesday we went to Galveston and Houston to pass the time. (Don't worry: Julie had the whole week off for Thanksgiving, and Jesse took vacation time, so no one was ditching. We'll ditch at Christmas.) We saw the Houston skyline, ate fabulous Texas BBQ, swam in the Gulf, and dreamt about visiting space. Did you know that Julie and David are just old enough to go on the next missions to the moon, or even Mars?

Everything we did was off the I-45, so we didn't have to worry about navigating around Houston (such a relief!). Once we arrived in Houston, we drove to downtown, where we marveled at the skyline. There was a funky, sewer-like smell while we were there, but we had a brief sniff of barbecue, which helped us choose our lunching location. I am not a big meat-eater, but my beef po'-boy was fantastic: tender and tasty!

After lunch (and paying $12 to park for an hour!) we pressed on to Galveston. We have a state parks pass, so we went to the Galveston State Park, sparing us any expenses for that visit. Of course, the kids were so excited to see the ocean, they ran straight for it as soon as we let them out of the car. The afternoon was quite foggy, so visibility was limited, and the ocean was quite grey, but that did not stop the kids from enjoying their romp in the water. While the kids played in the water and collected seashells, Jesse and I watched a pelican dive and eat the snack he caught. Amazing!!! After drying off, we chose a walking trail around some of the bayous and experienced amazing first sights: fish jumping out of the water to catch bugs, egrets nesting in the sea grass, crabs walking sideways in the water.

Our hotel was right on the shore, or seawall, as it is called in Galveston. We ate pizza and wings in our room, then headed downstairs to the indoor pool. Julie and David could actually stand in the shallow end, so Jesse and I held onto Josh and James as we circled the pool. After a pleasant day full of new kinds of fun, we went to bed hoping the fog would clear so we could see the ocean all the way to the edge of the world.

We were not disappointed! Despite having to be out of bed at 6:30am, we watched the sun rise over of the ocean with great delight. No fog obscured our view, and we could even see a platform of some kind in the distance, behind which was a ship. After the sun shone golden on the water's surface, we put on our swimsuits and headed for the beach. The kids collected more seashells and built "castles" in the sand. Jesse tried to teach Julie and me to body surf, but the waves weren't quite right for us to be successful. All the same, it was fun to try! Satisfied with our beach experience, we left to check out of the hotel and return to Houston.

As we pulled up to the Space Center at Houston, the museurm part of NASA's Johnson Space Center, David complained, "The space center doesn't look very spacey." But inside, he found great wonders to behold! Near the end of the day, we went into a special theater where we "experienced" blast off in the space shuttle. We heard the noises of the boosters as we rocketed into space. Smoke filled the room as we lifted off the launch pad. Amazed, David asked, "How did the smoke come out of the movie?"

Just before liftoff in the space shuttle, we took a tram tour of the facilities on Johnson Space Center. Now, if you have ever seen the movie Apollo 13, do you remember the scene when Jim Lovell's family goes into a room with red chairs behind Mission Control to watch the astronauts broadcast from space? The tour's first stop was to go into that room!!! We saw Mission Control for the Apollo missions and early shuttle missions. The gentleman recounting the wonderous story of landing on the moon shared with us that Mission Control was powered by two mainframe computers that filled a room a few flights below. The two mainframes together provided 400 KB of power; math whizzes and ham radio experts sent us to the moon!!!

Jesse throroughly enjoyed the tram tour, an engineer's dream. We saw a warehouse that holds mockups (full-scale models) of the space shuttle and various components of the International Space Station, used to train astronauts for their missions in space and to aid engineers in designing equipment that can interact with existing space vehicles. But, by far, Jesse's favorite site was the building that houses the Saturn V rocket, the rocket that shot the Apollo missions to the moon. He said the rocket made the missile he works on look puny (my word) and simple. He was impressed at the engineering of the rocket, an incredible feat without the aid of 3D CAD (computer-aided design) programs. He was inspired: engineers are an indredible breed!

We found a brief article in the newspaper about a space walk at the International Space Station that we were informed would occur this week to prepare for the arrival of a European laboratory in early December. Here is the link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/science/5327026.html

Remember to watch for the space shuttle launch on December 6th!

We were so happy to take a brief break from life's busyness, but also grateful to return home safely to prepare for Thanksgiving spent with beloved family. Happy Thanksgiving, our dear loved ones!

Julie Is Always Right!

Although I would never have guessed that being right all the time is genetic, it absolutely, positively is!!! Julie has inherited my always-right-ness. It made us laugh tonight. We enjoy listening to music by Josh Groban. There is one song on his newer CD, Awake, called "In Her Eyes." This song is sung in English, but Julie swears there is a line that says "alle sente megos." We do not know where she has gotten this idea - nothing in the song remotely sounds like that. We have shown her the words and asked if maybe the words go to a different song (one that is sung in a foreign language?), but she is emphatic that "alle sente megos" is in "In Her Eyes." After arguing with us today, she walked away, pouting. We did not discover until after she was in bed that she had put a sign on the piano with the words "Alle Sente Megos." She is right, even if she isn't! Jesse and I almost died laughing!!! Jesse once asked if Julie is right and I am right at the same time, who is right? You know the answer to that, don't you? (No, NOT Julie!)

Storybook Character Parade

On Friday Julie dressed up as Fancy Nancy for the school's storybook character parade. She put her costume together by herself; Mommy only added a curly ribbon for fun at the last minute. She was so excited about this event that she led the family in a parade on Saturday. Daddy was Santa Claus from Polar Express. Mommy was the purple cat from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Julie was Snow White from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. David was t-rex from his dinosaur book, Prehistoric Park. And Josh was Little Toot (no costume required) from Little Toot. James was asleep, so he didn't partipate. Why not try having your own storybook parade? Julie highly recommends it!

"Quote of the Week"

The weather here has been beautiful, so Jesse, the boys and I ate lunch on the porch one day. David brought his bike onto the porch and proceeded to ride to the end and then right off the end of the porch, a good 6-inch drop. He has quick reflexes and jumped clear of danger; then he started to laugh. He told us, "I was thinking in my head that looked like fun, so I thought I'd do it." The irony: just before David's daring deed, Jesse had quietly suggested we put a ramp at the end of the porch that the kids could jump their bikes off of. Obviously, Jesse and David share a desire for - for lack of a better word - adventure.

Bragging Rights 2

Jesse has been working for the last two years on a redesign project at work (Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control). In October he traveled to New Mexico, where he watched a test of the missile, which was successful. In other words, the redesign worked, and his team was able to gather some other necessary data from the test. Lockheed Martin awarded the members of his team a cash award for their hard work and successful test. Three cheers for Jesse, the Engineer King!!!

NEWS FLASH

James' second tooth appeared the day after his first emerged. Pretty soon he will no longer be able to chew on Mommy's finger. Stay tuned for more information.

"Quote of the Week"

Julie has learned to snap her fingers, but only on one hand. She demonstrated her success, then showed me her failure. "Pitiful," she said. (Unfortunately, Julie is still very sensitive about our laughing at her clever comments, so she glared at us after we showed our appreciation for her accomplishment.)

Bragging Rights

Julie was placed in the gifted and talented program at her school. It is a pull-out program: one half hour, four days a week. They are currently studying foreign countries. Julie came home one day and told me that Cuba used to be our friend but isn't our friend anymore; people leave Cuba on small boats to travel to the US. (I don't think I knew about Cuba until I was in college!!!) This week the GT students will go to the Japanese Gardens in Fort Worth to study Japanese architecture. Julie is very excited, and one day she sneaked a peek at her teachers books and saw a picture of a Japanese building. She carefully copied the distinctive features of the roof in her drawing. What an amazing girl!!!

Halloween x3

The kids celebrated Halloween three times this year: on Saturday the 27th at Julie's school, on Tuesday the 30th at church, and on Wednesday the 31st in the neighborhood. Although the kids didn't tire of trick-or-treating, I was partied out by Halloween night. Jesse was kind and took the kids around the neighborhood, while I stayed home to pass out candy. I used the candy the kids had collected at the first two parties -- hee, hee hee. One bucket-load of candy is already too much without adding two additional loads!

(Besides, the kids didn't notice.) Yes, yes; I'm a grinch! (You would be too after a month of birthday and Halloween parties.) By the way, Julie wore three different costume. First she was a Barbie ballerina, then she was Sleeping Beauty, then she was Princess Lucianna, a character from a Barbie movie titled The Island Princess. David actually won a prize for his Captain Jack Sparrow costume at the church party. Josh was Batman without the mask. James wore a borrowed spider

outfit but didn't stay in it very long; he was cranky or asleep for each of the trick-or-treating experiences. Jesse and I dressed as a medieval king and queen. We told Julie that we were Sleeping Beauty's parents on the night of the church party.

David Turns Five

Hear ye; hear ye! David is now five years old. He is officially ready to start school next year. He can play with "big boy" toys: goodbye toy trains; hello ACTION FIGURES!

He partied hard with his friends on October 20th then partied hard with his family on the 24th. With his friends he played games, ate hot dogs, decorated cupcakes, and opened presents. With his family he biked by the Trinity River, ate pizza at Cici's Buffet, ate cake with green icing, and opened presents. His family gave him Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs and Legos, so David has been building for the last two weeks. He builds cars, robots, drum beaters (with his dad), boats, and space ships. He is amazing!!!

NEWS FLASH

After drooling for the last three months, James' first tooth can finally be seen and felt on his lower gum line. It needs to emerge a little more to be photographed, so a picture will come soon.