Happy Mardi Gras!

This Saturday after Brianna's soccer game which they won 1-0, we drove down to Port Arthur for Mardi Gras. We went in two cars, me and Brianna with Maxi and Cupid, the hamster and in the other car was Dennis and Denise. Dennis has his car in the shop and Lexus gave him a brand new loaner. Beautiful ES 350 with everything in it. Denise and Brianna love the GPS and have requested that I get one in my new car. Why? Been around the world and I don't get lost. On our way to PA before we got out of Houston, all of I10 traffic detoured in one lane. I stayed with all the cars and got to PA in 2 1/2 hours(normal 1hr. 45 min.) and Dennis entered another route on the GPS so he got to PA 25 minutes before I did. Now I know why I should get a GPS! Anyhow, we made it in time to get to Procter St. for the Grand Parade. Luckily the rain had stopped and it looked like it was clearing up. We took our Disneyworld souvenir ponchos just in case. Before the parade began at 6:00 pm the motorcycles paraded first. There must have been hundreds of them throwing beads also. Then out came the floats and Denise and Brianna went wild! Brianna was dancing to all the music the floats were playing. The bead throwers loved her dancing and would throw her the best beads. Denise had her ways of getting some good ones also. My sister Rebecca, my mom and my aunt had a great time also. We can't wait to come next year for some more bags of beads!

Daisy Ceremony

Last night was Brianna's Daisy Girl Scout petal ceremony. All the girls received their learning petals and Girl Scout pin. She received petals for being honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, couraging and strong, responsible and respect for self and others. They all lit a candle each and said a little something about what Girl Scouts is all about. I was proud of my little one, she is growing up so fast.

Feliz día de San Valentín

It feels like it has been forever that I have written in my blog. I have been so busy with work and kid stuff. We have had a major reorganization at work and I now have a different boss. In all my almost 25 years of working in IT, all my bosses have been men. I now have a woman boss. She seems to be really nice so we will see how it goes. I will certainly miss my old boss, but I will still see him around on the same floor I work on. Instead of my usual HR/Payroll applications that I have been working on for the past 15 years, they have decided to give us more work mainly because we have less people! I will now be able to work with Finance, Supply Chain, Marketing and Sales. It sounds exciting but will be a lot of extra work. Halliburton's top guy who moved his offices to Dubai is thinking of moving back to the US because of the economic problems and all the layoffs. You can read more about it here. Enough said of work, Happy Valentine's to everyone. Denise and Brianna started yesterday when they were able to wear what they wanted for that day. Usually it is standard dress which is like wearing uniforms, but on this day they were happy to wear their capri tights and mini skirts with heart designed shirts. They can't exchange candy anymore in school so they came home with a lot of pencils and erasers along with their Valentine's. This morning we went to their first soccer game of the season and it was cold and cloudy, but it never rained. The kids played well and they had fun than we had to deliver all the Girl Scout cookies to the neighbors. I finally caved in and told them they could get a hamster for Valentine's so we went to Pet Smart and bought everything needed along with a Chinese hamster. I just hope this creature doesn't ever get loose in the house, because they look so much like mice. The kids named it Cupid and just love it. It looks so cute when they put it in a plastic ball and let it roll around on the floor.
Once we had the cage all put together we were able to leave it alone and go out for dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, French Quarter Market Grill. It was pouring down rain outside but it didn't keep people from going out for St. Valentine's including us!

Six More Weeks of Winter

Well it looks like we will be having six more weeks of winter according to Puxatany Phil, the famous groundhog. He emerged from his burrow and saw his shadow at daybreak this morning. I told Brianna when she woke up and she turned around crying back to bed. She kept mumbling that Groundhog Day should be a school holiday and it's not fair it's going to be cold for six more weeks. She finally got dressed and put on a smile in time for school.
It looks like I have a good chance of keeping my job at Halliburton. I have made it through two rounds of layoffs. 1,200 employees worldwide this time and hopefully there will be no more for a long time. Our fourth quarter earnings were pretty high so our bonuses were very good this year. I probably should save it in case of more layoffs.

Houston Auto Show

Who would ever think that my girls would have such a good time at an auto show! We spent most of our Saturday afternoon at the Houston Auto Show in the Reliant Center. Denise and Brianna had so much fun jumping into cars and pretending that they were driving. Brianna's favorites were always the convertibles and Denise always liked the race car looking kind. There were many cars to look at including race cars and classic cars. I mainly went to help me decide what new car I will be buying in March for my 50th Birthday. I think I have made my decision on either the Buick Enclave or the Chevrolet Traverse. I need another 7 seater because when we travel we take Maxie with us and she takes up the full back seat. The kids liked the double sun roof and DVD player with the controls in the back. I liked the luxury look of the car inside and out. This one doesn't look so much like a van!

After we looked at all the cars I was interested in, the kids went to the Kids Zone to play with the inflatable slides and obstacle course. They also had an arts and crafts area where they colored cars on paper and added glitter, feathers and other doo-dads. They already said that they want to go back next year, we'll see!