January 31 - Oh My Heart

Today on the way home from wrestling the kids were talking about their morning routine at school, which includes the pledge of allegiance (to the United States and the state of Texas), the North Pointe Character Pledge and a moment of silence.

"I get so frustrated by kids that talk during the moment of silence. That's my time to think about Amelia and our time together." - Julia

Oh my heart-I literally burst out in tears hearing her say that. My sweet, sweet girl. I'm crying right now typing this. I know it sounds crazy (really Christine, you are still crying about your dog that passed away 4 months ago?) but yes, I still think about Amelia all the time and I still miss her like crazy. And I love that Julia still thinks about her every day, I had no idea. 

Kids-they really are the best part of us. 

January 30 - Atlanta

New Theta house

Quick robotics update. 26 elementary schools competed in our district wide competition. Those 26 schools had 65 teams. 10 teams made it to states...3 from our school and 2 from Brookwood (the other school close to us where half of our Girl Scout troop attends). How incredible that 50% of the teams that qualified are from these 2 schools? Great job kiddos!

Last week I traveled to Atlanta for our Global Sales Meeting (previously known as our National Sales Meeting, this time around our international distributors joined us). 2018 was a fantastic year for our company so we had a lot to celebrate. Our welcome reception was Thursday and we had a full day of meetings and then dinner on Friday.

Emory Quad

Saturday was a half day and we had the afternoon free. I ubered to Emory and caught part of a swim meet and then Becky met me on campus for lunch. We walked around campus and I was shocked at how much it has changed. My freshman dorm is gone and a new student center is being constructed. There is a lot of building going on all over. Probably the most shocking is that the business school has doubled in size. Becky lives a few blocks from campus so we walked back to her house (I am in love with her neighborhood...and TREES...and it's not flat!). We visited for a few hours and then she brought me back to the hotel. It was such an amazing afternoon together, can't wait for the next one. 

Saturday night was our big awards dinner. This is one of the few nights a year I have to dress up.

I tried Rent the Runway for the first time and it was great. You order a dress online (it comes with a free back up size) and I also ordered a 2nd dress for free since it was my first order. The three dresses were delivered right to the hotel and I loved both of them! After the awards dinner, I went out dancing with some girlfriends from work. It was a great trip!

Celebrating a record 2018 with mimosas

Cara and Jen, two of my favorites 

January 22 - Luzia & RoboRockets

RoboRockets are heading to states!

Happy Tuesday everyone! We had a jam packed weekend here in Houston, one of the busiest in recent memories. Let's dive in. On Friday night, I took Julia and Kendall to Luzia, a Cirque de Soleil show. Luzia is a dream through Mexico and it was absolutely incredible. I've been to several Cirque shows and this was one of my favorites. There was a water element that was magical and the contortionist was the best I've ever seen (I'm still in awe..yet creeped out thinking about him). If you have the opportunity to see this show, please go! You won't be disappointed. 

Saturday was the CCISD robotics competition. This was a huge competition (bigger than the state competition) with 65 teams from schools in our school district. JD is one of our team mentors for elementary school and Julia is a programmer for team B (we have 3 teams from our school).

Teams are scored on a number of factors including programming, teamwork and points scored. They are paired with teams from other schools and both teams performance impacts their final score and rank. While Julia's team was the top team for our elementary school, in the final match the other team did not do their best and Julia's team did not place high enough for an auto invite to the state competition. She and her teammates were devastated but JD said he was super proud of her. Julia was "cool as a cucumber" under pressure and drove clean the entire competition. One of our other North Pointe teams qualified for states while Julia's team and another were top 10. In years past, a few select top teams have been invited to compete at states so we knew there was a chance. Alex (the other mentor) researched all the regional competitions in the state and plotted them. Julia's team was ranked #13th (out of the entire state) and the other team was just a few slots behind (that should give you an idea of how strong the teams are in our area).

congrats Nic!

On Sunday, we got the official word that both North Pointe teams were invited to states!! OMG!! All 3 teams are going!! We are the only school in the state of TX with 3 teams invited. Amazing!!

After the robotics competition, it was time to switch gears. JD and I headed to west Houston to celebrate Nic & Inna's wedding. We had a really nice dinner and I had a blast dancing the night away!

January 18 - Ruff Life

Friday!! It's been a very long, stressful work week and I cannot even put into words how excited I am for the weekend. The kids had a pretty good week. Julia was supposed to tour our assigned middle school yesterday but the school board is voting on rezoning boundaries next month and has pushed everything back (our neighborhood is not impacted). She is applying to the science magnet (which is a great opportunity but...same exact hours as elementary school without bussing so I'm not quite as excited) and we'll see if she gets in. If she gets in she'll have 3 days to make a decision. Luke was at wrestling twice this week and had excellent practices, working really hard. And we found out yesterday that Jillian is moving up to the next class which focuses on potty training. Oh boy! I hope it's a quick process. Meanwhile, Apollo is still recovering and clearly, living a "ruff life" LOL. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

January 14 - Kickball

Happy Monday everyone! One of my New Years resolutions is to try to stay on top of blog posts (both kids and books..I am crazy behind on book reviews right now) so I'm aiming for two per week for this blog. We'll see how I do. 

Julia

Julia decided to organize a kick ball game with kids in the neighborhood over the weekend. She made flyers (I didn't verify the date so the date was correct but it was Saturday, not Sunday) and handed them out to friends. They met on the green space on Saturday and found it a little muddy (it rained Friday night) so they moved to a cul-de-sac next to the greenspace. They were having a blast until a woman came out of their house and yelled at them to leave because "She paid a premium for her lot to be close to the green space and didn't want to hear their noise."

She then had the nerve to ask JD if he "even lived in the neighborhood." JD and the kids were upset but they moved the game to our cul-de-sac. They were outside playing for over two hours and had a great time!

Luke

Luke recently tested into GT at our school and is excited about getting to do extra math (proof he is like his dad and not me LOL). While he still prefers computer and video games to everything else, he played kickball with everyone and had fun with playing with his best friend Serene over the weekend. He has been helping me a lot with chores around the house and has a recent obsession with eating peas. The boy loves green peas!

Jillian

We've started calling Jillian our 'little naked wonder' because she loves to strip naked and take off her diaper. Then she tries to go outside to play with her siblings like that. Not happening little blondie, you need to wear clothes to play outside! She has another cold (3rd one since Thanksgiving) and it's pretty exhausting because she crawls in bed with JD and I in the middle of the night. Half the time I wake up and my head is resting on my  nightstand. 

Apollo

Apollo had his 3rd and final heartworm shot last week. 6-8 more weeks of 'rest' and then he can play again like a normal dog. He can't be tested for another 6 months to verify the heartworms are gone but the treatment is usually successful so he will be able to exercise normally. We are very excited to play with him at the end of next month/early March! We were having him rotate between Julia and Luke at night but now he pretty much sleeps with Luke. He is the most snuggly dog I've ever seen and will literally sleep with his head on the pillow like a human. 

JD

JD has been crazy busy at work lately working late nights and weekends. He has a trip to San Fran coming up. He is still mentoring robotics club at North Pointe and the district wide competition is this Saturday. Go Rockets!

Christine

My work has also been very busy and stress lately. I am hiring a new person to join my team so hopefully we get someone hired soon. 

January 11 - Beastmode

Well, it's official. Julia is a member of the Beastmode Track Team and her first practice was this past Monday. She LOVED it! Her friend Braden is also doing it too. 

I attended a parent meeting on Sunday and was very impressed with the coaching staff and team. The kids practice once a week in January, twice a week in February and three times per week starting in March. The meets also start mid-March. They do not recommend that the kids do any other sports during the season except...swimming. The coaches evaluate the kids and will determine if they are long distance or sprinters and then they will be placed in the appropriate practice groups (I'm very interested to see how they place her, I think she's a long distance runner and she thinks she's a sprinter). In terms of meets, this is very different from swim. For Aquastar swim meets, the parents choose the events. For track, the kids rotate events per meet depending on if they are in the long distance or sprinter group. In terms of shoes...they recommended a few specific brands and told us not to buy Nike or Under Armour, as these are the worst shoes for kids. Of course, just 3 days before this meeting I bought Julia new Nikes. We went to a running store earlier this week and ordered a pair of New Balance which will be her "track sneakers." 

You may be thinking..."Christine, doesn't Julia have heel problems?" Good question. Yes, she was diagnosed with Severs Disease 2 years ago. Severs is a swollen growth plate which causes heel pain. It will resolve itself when her plates fuse. She wears heel cups in her shoes and hasn't had any issues after her triathlons or 5k's so we are giving this a try. If her feet hurt, we will pull her. We'll see how it goes. 

Happy Friday everyone!

January 7 - Cookie Time

Jilllian found Mickey & Minnie!

It's January so you know what that means...Girl Scout cookie time! Sales opened in our council this past Saturday at 9am. Julia (along with me and Jillian) hit the neighborhood right at 9am. We were out for 2 hours, took a lunch break and then headed out for another 2 hours. There is nothing like door to door sales to build some character. The majority of people are nice. Some people practically shout "no" and slammed the door in Julia's face. I think my favorite (I say this with all sarcasm) are those that pretended they weren't home but then ran outside to pick up their newspapers while we could still see their house. That's okay-it's all part of any sales job. She did pretty well and went to work with JD this morning to sell cube to cube. She usually does well at his work but over 50% said no this year. Out of town family members..she'll be calling this week!!

January 3 - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! This year the kids "big Christmas present" was a surprise trip to Raleigh for New Years. Unfortunately, I forgot to communicate that the trip was a surprise to Greg and Jill so our kids found out about it in advance, but it just made Julia and Luke that much more excited for the holiday. You see, JD is what we like to call a "New Years Scrooge." He thinks any sort of New Years celebration is ridiculous (likewise, we think he is ridiculous LOL).

So when they found out we were going to see their cousins and they would be able to stay up until midnight-EXTREME EXCITEMENT!! JD was supposed to come on the trip but due to last minute work craziness, he had to cancel. It's okay-traveling with 3 kids by myself? No problem!

We flew out on Saturday morning from the Hobby airport. I recently achieved A-List preferred status with Southwest and this turned out to be the most amazing thing ever.

We arrived to the airport approx. 1 hour before departure and there was a huge line to check luggage. That's when I noticed a special lane for A-List preferred...with zero people! We dropped off our giant suitcase and toddler carseat super fast. I have CLEAR status as well (basically like an express pass that allows you to bypass the security line before the first TSA checkpoint). The line was quite line on Saturday morning so this saved us a lot of time. The flight itself was pretty good. Julia and Luke sat together while Jillian and I sat immediately behind them.

Jillian ate a lot of snacks, watched a little Mickey Mouse and we read books. She had a complete meltdown during the descent when she had to be strapped into her seat but luckily that was only 20min of screaming. 

We arrived in Raleigh and Uncle Greg picked us up. We met Aunt Jill, Andrew and Victoria at Jason's Deli and had a nice lunch, then headed back to the house to play. The kids had fun on the playset and ninja course outside. We also went to their neighborhood tennis/basketball court where the kids had fun being outside. 

The next day, we all headed to a local ninja warrior gym for a few hours. It goes without saying that this was a huge hit with all the kids. Jillian had fun running around the gym, Julia tackled the 12' wall, Luke tackled the 8' wall, Victoria was amazing with the circus drapes and Andrew was fantastic on the rock wall. Fun for all! 

The following day we headed to the Museum of Life and Science for over 4 hours. Four hours, you must be exaggerating Christine. Nope! We were there for actually almost 4.5 hours. The kids probably could have stayed longer. We went to the butterfly rain forest, they did science experiments, build block towers and so much more. I highly recommend this museum for anyone visiting the Raleigh area, it's fantastic!

Next up...New Years Eve!! Greg and Jill's best friends came over and we had a mini-party with everyone, complete with food, drinks and board games. We had a blast playing a werewolf game and everyone (except Jillian) stayed up until the ball dropped. So fun!!! 

The next day we went roller skating and guess who tried it out too? Jillian! She only made it around the rink once (her skates didn't roll very well, which was actually a good thing) but she had fun. And I'd like to give a shout out to my brother for watching her almost the entire time we were there. 

Yesterday, we flew back to Houston and I'm back at work (boo!). Jillian is back at daycare while Julia and Luke start back next Tuesday. We had such a wonderful trip, a million thanks to Greg, Jill and the kids for welcoming our crazy crew. We had a wonderful time!!

Rock Climbers

Swing

Roller skating cuties

Towers

Victoria was the best helper with Jillian