This was an email forwarded to me from a friend:

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach children about sexual predators, you are irresponsible and eroding the fiber of society.

* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that hates America and advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

New Roof

Our new Galvalume Standing Seam Metal Roof!
... and if you live in Austin, we highly recommend our roofers!
Straight Solutions is awesome.

During construction....

The May hailstorm that caused all this.

awful collectable

This is just wrong.

I threatened to buy this for Davids' next Christmas gift.

First week of school

Back to school photos of everyone but our Middle Schooler, Emma. I'll snap one of her when she isn't looking!


Joey's favorite girl and favorite boy both made it into his class for the new year.
They sum their feelings up perfectly:
Sweet, Crazy and Sad

Joey with his first barber shop haircut and his new first grade teacher, Mrs. Wallace.

Max and his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Cross

And in honor of BarackObama accepting the nomination for president, this photo from last spring when we worked making a sign at Obama's Austin headquarters. A staffer took this photo. We hung the sign proudly in our yard during Texas Primary season

Summer Birthday Swim

I'd better not hear anyone say "cookie cake" until I'm done serving....

It is our annual Missy Kay birthday blast... and this year Mary's mom (another birthday girl) hosted us at her wonderful house. My kids consider Maddie and Hannah quite lucky to have such a nice pool and outdoor wonderland at their disposal.

We had wonderful food and of course, we are all so funny and clever, the conversation was very amusing and enlightening. It truly was a fun night out.

The only business we did not take care of was a traditional photo of all the kids. We will have to fix that the next time we are all gathered together.





For some reason I missed getting photos of Garrett and Emma and our hostess Judy. But next year, I won't miss them!

I found this old, old photo of the kids as little stinkers... Joey was missing for some reason.

perfect product - perfect day

I've always planned to write posts about my favorite products. You can consider this part one in a two part series. The series will examine products I feel are practically perfect in every way.

The first is the Sharpie Pen.

The Sharpie Pen is a perfect product. When a Sharpie is fresh, it gives the most satisfying really black, wet line. It is just the right pointy-ness for my writing needs. Hold it one way and it is fine, another and it is bold. It's permanence is what gives stability to an ever changing world.

You should always ALWAYS carry a Sharpie pen in your purse, pocket and car.

+

Because you just never know......
=

When you will really need the Sharpie Pen in your purse.


Actually, the clever reader will realize that I had pre-meditated enough to carry a 2004 campaign shirt in my purse. But the chance meeting was pure serendipity.

I had a delightful lunch with my Godmother on Thursday. Knowing I probably missed the rally, I decided to drive by Brush Park to see the Obama campaign bus I'd heard would be in town that day. When I got there, a handful of guys were breaking down tables, podiums and stage. I chatted with one of them about how the rally had gone, and he mentioned Howard Dean was still in the tour bus and would likely be out shortly. So, fresh Sharpie in hand, I waited him out.

And I finally met him, chatted briefly, and got my shirt signed. I wish I had a camera, but you can't carry everything with you. (I have a lame old cell phone, perhaps it's time to upgrade to a camera phone!)

Besides that fun experience, I had lunch with four different, dear friends over the last ten days or so. And the evening after meeting the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee I had a delightful night out with three very cool ladies, margaritas, Mexican food, laughs and a walk in the park on a breezy Texas night.

What a life.

Port A Recap

Our annual trip to the beach just ended. We call it Cousin Camp, because the eight cousins on the Kennemer side of the family bring their eight adults along and we enjoy the beach for a week. This year the weather was perfect and the kids were in heaven. The top photo was one of the early nights on the beach. I found my poor old camera fogged up immediately when I got toward the sand and water. So most of my pix are taken inside. These three big boys were together all week and loving it.

The smallest and biggest cousin... Emma had to stop tickling when Alex used his secret (gas) weapon!

Hanging out during the heat of the day.

The little kids really wanted to be with the big kids... swimming, out in the ocean, playing video games, and the big kids were very patient with their little friends.




Tie Dye shirts and photos in the whale always wrap up a successful trip.

Thank you to Grandma and Grandad for hosting us again for another great year.

Befores and After

Two before photos and one after.

The first before is Max's extra tooth. We had it pulled on Monday. He had been growing (fast) an extra tooth right out of the roof of his mouth. One trip to our friend, the oral surgeon and that feature was history. Max did great, his mother, however, almost passed out. Since we are friends with the doctor AND I am working on two Architecture projects for him, I wisely waited until he finished and left the room before asking the nurse to close the door so I could sit with my head between my knees.

Sometimes I wondered if I could have cut it as a doctor, the answer is clearly NO.

Joey: Before haircut.

Joey: After haircut, with our wonderful hairdresser, Darlene. I've known her now for over twenty years. She and Joey really hit it off.

Two before photos and one after.

The first before is Max's extra tooth. We had it pulled on Monday. He had been growing (fast) an extra tooth right out of the roof of his mouth. One trip to our friend, the oral surgeon and that feature was history. Max did great, his mother, however, almost passed out. Since we are friends with the doctor AND I am working on two Architecture projects for him, I wisely waited until he finished and left the room before asking the nurse to close the door so I could sit with my head between my knees.

Sometimes I wondered if I could have cut it as a doctor, the answer is clearly NO.

Father's Day is so Starbell

Happy Day after Father's Day!

I hope all the fathers out there got the love they deserve.


David and the kids watch the Mike Meyers Saturday Night Live Special. Our kids LOVE that they get to occasionally watch that show. They feel like they are onto a funny inside joke because they understand the humor of "Schwetty balls"

This is the very cute turtle that Emma found. We called Grace to tell her how starbell it was.

First Day of Summer....

Hey kids! There is no water there!

We've been at summer almost a week now! That's hard to believe, but on the first day of summer, we met a few friends for River #2 on our Water Tour of Central Texas.

This time we visited San Marcos and the San Marcos River. It is much closer than the Guadalupe, about 40 minutes from home. The Guadalupe has always been my favorite, with its breathtaking big vistas, sheer cliffs, open wide swaths of river. In a way, though, the San Marcos was prettier. It's much smaller with vegetation teeming at the banks of the narrow river. And there are fewer signs of life as you float down. Not too many big houses on the banks. Funky old train trestles and bridges that you have to duck down in your tube to get past.

Ironically, the San Marcos is right in town, practically on the grounds of Texas State University, but it feels more secluded. It is very pokey, however. Lots of paddling and quite a bit of pesky duckweed.

This makes my third river since April; Blanco, Guadalupe and San Marcos. Now there are only about 5 or 6 left to hit.

Mr. Arce's Going Away Celebration

There were slices of cake and LOTS of mustaches!

First Day : Last Day

Joey's Kindergarten year is over.....
Max's third grade year is over... I'm not sure he and his teacher ever stopped hugging...


...and Emma wrapped up her elementary school experience with a wonderful fifth grade year.
Then there were lots of last day photos... Emma with Joey's special friend.... she looks like an American Girl Doll!
This is our principal who is leaving to take a promotion with the district... he has been at Bryker Woods two years longer than Emma, so he's the only one we've known... Emma got her lunchbox autographed by him as a souvenir!
This is Joey's big buddy, River. River always treated Joey with so much respect and love. He was an excellent 6th grade friend.
And our last picture, taken on the way home.... Edward, our fantastic friend and crossing guard. By this point, Max was out with a friend getting a snow cone, and we were on our way out for gelatto.
I'm still a little blue that it is over. This year was by far our best ever. We had three excellent teachers this year. And I realized and appreciated how special it was all year long. I was mentally putting the brakes on every day, but things end and change no matter what.