Hello from New Orleans

Hello from New Orleans! This is my first mobile blog. I'm in New Orleans visiting my step-daughter who was just in a really bad car accident. She had some head trauma & her leg is bruised & hurt. Surprisingly she's doing OK. We are here for moral support & her dad wanted to make sure his baby was OK. It's late and time to sleep.

Lust Loathing and a Little Lip Gloss by Kyra Davis

Maybe it's the book titles that do it. First there was Sex Murder and a Double Latte. Next came Passion, Betrayal, and Killer Highlights and then there was Obsession, Deceit, and Really Dark Chocolate. All wonderful titles! Now finally there is Kyra Davis' fourth Sophie Katz novel, Lust, Loathing and a Little Lip Gloss.

Sophie Katz is the creation of Kyra Davis and my favorite mystery heroine since Nancy Drew. She is smart, cute, silly, adventurous and more than a little addicted to Starbucks and chocolate. In this latest novel she is equally obsessed with a beautiful Victorian home that must be hers. But then, keeping with tradition, people start to die, Sophie finds the dead bodies, and she finds herself completely involved in a mystery.

The owner of the house is a little eccentric and has some really strange requirements in her contract, but Sophie is hell bent on getting the house. She meets an odd string of characters and the story gets even more complicated.

Kyra Davis proves once again what a talented writer she is with this fourth Sophie novel. Just know this. Sophie Katz is always the hero and somehow she always gets herself out of a sticky situation.

Second Child Syndrome

My poor little boy. He's the second child. His baby book is half the size of my daughter's. I promise myself I will catch up before he's old enough to realize it. I did move one step closer a few months ago when I ordered all the pictures I'll be using from Shutterfly in preparation.

He was two years old when my daughter started kindergarten and I must confess I have been more engrossed in her education than I have in his. I half joked that he will naturally have a head start by virtue of being a boy. Sadly I followed through on that joke and I feel guilty that I didn't as much time preparing him for the Vanguard test as I did my daughter.

Now I find myself at a precarious point in their lives. She starts third grade next year; she's half way through elementary school! She's also been blessed with an amazing intelligence that has her making straight As in a gifted and talented program. But I don't want to take that intelligence for granted next year. I still need to pay as much attention to her.

He's starting Kindergarten and I feel that this year is crucial because it will very well indicate how well he will do for the rest of his elementary school education. I am going to have to be so balanced next fall with my time. I'm going to have to divide my time equally between the two of them and Rey will also have to be very involved. We will have to divide ourselves up according to our strengths like we did when his daughter lived with us a few years ago when she was in middle school. Rey would tackle subjects like math and science and I helped with English and History.

One thing I've resolved to do is to stop whatever I am doing whenever my sons asks me to read to him. (within reason of course) I think that if he's asking for me to read to him I should take full advantage of that desire before it dies away like a flame on a cold night.

I did that today and then we talked about the sounds of the letters. I typed some short words on my laptop and then family names and he sounded out the first letter and guessed the word or name. So then I decided to test something on him. I got the "Dick and Jane" reader and read the first few pages with him. I was pleasantly surprised that he was able to sound out the first couple of letters and then he would guess the word. A teacher friend told me once that that's the beginning of reading so I welcome anything he can give. He just turned five and he isn't starting kinder until August. I have a good two months to work with him on his letters, phonics, and reading.

Now if I could only get that baby book finished too!

I Really Do Love Beaver's, the Restaurant That Is

I had a really funny thing happen to me this week. I was reading Alison Cook's Chronicle blog all about Beaver's making some yummy dish with Spam and I love Beaver's. They have some of the best drinks ever!! Try the Opal Smash. So I commented that I love Beaver's.

The next day I was checking my yahoo e-mail and I thought that my message had been bounced back to me as inappropriate. I was all, "what in the world! (WITW- much cleaner than what other people use) I was cracking up and I told my husband and sister about it. I kept thinking, "That Chron, where is their mind? In the gutter?"

And I thought it was terribly funny but then I went back and decided to check my mail again and then I found out that the message had only bounced back to me because the person who is supposed to be one of the people that checks comments before they are approved apparently doesn't work there any more and that was all. I went and checked Alison's blog again and no, it was there. It was an approved comment. I laughed at myself. I think I preferred my first version of the story better. It was a lot more entertaining.

Speaking of Alison Cook, I forgot to mention in earlier posts that she went and checked out my cousin Sylvia's new restaurant on Woodway, near Voss and gave it a pretty good review. Check it out on chron.com. I've been there several times and the food is really good. I haven't eaten mole in literally YEARS and she made me a believer again. Her mole chicken enchiladas are to die for!

Well it's Saturday and I'm off to my girlfriend's pool. She is so hospitable and she's letting her sister, mom and all her friends descend upon her pool with all our children. Ten children in all between all of us! It will be quite an adventure today. I'm taking the kids to give them swimming lessons. I haven't enrolled my kids in formal swimming lessons and sometimes I feel bad but then I remember the fact that I learned to swim from my sisters and I did just fine. Just another thing that this new generation of people feels is so necessary yet we did without.

Hello! I'm testing my blogger on my phone out of curiosity. Seems too difficult but maybe good for vacations. That's all!

I Am Alive and I Do Know More than Music

OK. I'm not dead. I'm very much alive and very much caught up in all kinds of stuff and not enough of the good stuff. I am trying to juggle summer and too much freedom. Funny how that can be just as challenging as a restrictive schedule. I have too much time in the morning and I end up running like a chicken in the morning. I was really proud of myself this morning. I actually got to work a few minutes early to our 8:30 meeting. Amazing!

I don't want for life to pass me by so fast that I don't really appreciate the moments and make them count! I don't want for the days to speed by and that I miss all of these precious moments with my kids when they are little. But I also don't want to simply exist without any real meaning in life. That is my biggest fear. "Live to the point of tears." (camus)

My little boy was getting his hair cut Sunday and he was so cute having a conversation with the hair stylist. He kept asking her questions and she patiently answered every one. He was adorable! And my husband and I sat there just beaming and feeling so proud that our son is so smart and sociable. That's love!

The funniest question was when he asked the lady, "What happens when you put that bucket on your head?" (in reference to the old fashioned hair dryer) We laughed so hard! Earlier that day we had the joy of hearing him comment at our meeting, in his own words for the first time.

Tomorrow my daughter is modeling for the second time for the Uniform Superstore. She modeled for their mailer and newspaper insert last year and they needed another model again this year. She's really excited about doing it! So excited that she said "no" to a picnic field trip to model again. I knew she would. She's that big of a ham! Yesterday she too answered at our meeting on the fly and last week she answered in her own words and she made us so proud!

Stop and enjoy these moments. They will never be mine again. Regardless of what I believe about eternal life or what happens when we die, these moments, when they are little will never come back to me. This is it. This is the only time that they will be little like this. I must embrace it and rejoice in it. I will never be the mother of an eight and five year old child again...

Girl in a Coma on Houston skirt!

Go on over to the Houston skirt! June issue and check out my feature on Girl in a Coma.

It's really challenging writing for a publication after I've been blogging as long as I have. Especially since I'm so accustomed to writing in the first person and really saying how something spoke to me personally.

I loved interviewing Girl in a Coma for this story, but I couldn't say everything that I wanted to say in 640 words. I touched on the fact that I love the song Simple Man, but the words couldn't really grasp the feeling.

I listen to that song and I feel all of the passion in the words and the poetry. It's amazing to me that Nina Diaz was only 15 when she wrote that song and I told her. I told them that whenever that song comes on I tell the kids to be quiet and I turn the radio up and sing it. The kids already know the words. Maybe not a good thing!

Phanie laughed and said that it reminded her of when they were kids and their mom would turn up a song that she loved and she would tell them, "Listen to the words!"

The words to the song are powerful. Words like, "your eyes were the thrill of my life" and "your words made the poem called our lives."

"Simple man what dirty hands you have
oh the better to leave your greasy mark on
and oh ohhh how i missed you tonight."

Beautiful!

Their new album, Trio BC, is just as good, if not better, than their first album. Go on over to imeem.com to listen to a sample.

Some of my favorites are "El Monte," "Ven Cerca" (their first song in Spanish), "Bb," "Pleasure and Pain," and "Vino." Honestly, I think I like almost all the songs on this CD.

If you are in Houston this week and you'd like to check out their new CD, they'll be at Best Buy on Richmond and 610 on Monday at 7 p.m.

They'll also be at Fitzgerald's on Tuesday at 8 p.m. Fitzegerald's is on the corner of White Oak and Studewood in the Heights.