Mompaca…

   Plants and flowers in my yard.  I decided I needed to do something that would calm me.

This is Houston, Texas at Sunset.  Pretty Sky. 

Probably from all of those chemicals released in Pasadena.

Appetizer:  Roma Tomatoes with Mozarella, Rosemary and Olive OIl Broiled

Main Course:  Steak Marinated in Red Wine/Worchestire Sauce, Pan Seared with Sweet Potatoes and Granny Smith Apples, Collard Greens Stir Sauteed with Oilive Oil and Bacon

Here is what we had for dinner on Saturday when my husband came home.  Dinner came out really well.  Of course, the kids turned up their noses.

This is what I want:  I want my kiddo’s school to allow me to transfer my kids to another school within the district.   I will tell you what I think.

The district is one of the best in Texas with one of the highest tax rates. 

Fact:  Maybe the district was one of the best at one time but that was before all of the parents who lived in the central part of Houston moved to the suburbs looking for the “good” school and the safe neighborhoods. 

Now, the schools have lost their supply of quiet, eager, normal behavior, high achieveing, homework-checked-by-their-parents every night kid to not-turning-in-my-homework, stealing pencils, held back last year, moved from some other city, street-survival culture kid. 

 I’m tired of my kiddo  having to sit out recess because 1/2 the students in the class are sucking the teacher’s energy by talking and playing their way through the day. 

How do I know this?  I have seen it with my own eyes. 

 I’m tired of the parents not taking the responsibility of making their student behave in school so other kids can learn.  I wish the teacher could put the rowdy, none-learning kids in the gym all day.  Let them talk, bully and cause chaos with each other.  Students have a legal right to be at school but they do not have the right to interrupt everyone in the classroom. 

Parents, the teacher did not pick on your child.  Your child has poor impulse control or something.  If you think you moved to this district in order to insure your child gets one of the better educations in Texas, think again. 

You  or your kid are not being picked on because you are “poor” “white”, “black”, “Hispanic”, “Korean”, “Russian”, “Filipino”, ”South American”, “Spanish speaking”, “any Middle Eastern language”, “attend a mosque”, “eat carrots”, “religion”, “economic level”,  “skinny”, “have two eyes”. 

Parents, you might have changed your geography but in your kid’s head and in your head you have not moved at all.

The problem is your kid.  My kid is subsidizing your kid because the teacher does not have to spend time during class quieting my child.

I have volunteered  at the school during the day.   I have stood up in front of the classroom and spoke to the class.  Your kid would not be quiet no matter how many times the teacher asked.    No matter how many times I stopped and waited for your child to quiet down.  Your kid thought he/she was witty.  He/She enjoyed the power of disrupting  me or whoever else was talking.

Parents, today I am talking to you about your part.  You are not fully to blame.  You are working everyday trying to pay these high gas prices.  You are working to make sure the mortgage is paid and that your boss does not fire you in these economic times.  You are just trying to drive one hour to work each way.  Your boss will not even let you take one day off work to have a teacher conference.  I know.  I have been there. 

 I have worked at a car wash in the Texas heat for $3.35 an hour for two years.  After working that 8 hour shift, I walked the 5 miles to my one room apartment because I could not afford a car.  We all have some struggle stories.

Check you kid’s homework.  Ask the teacher to stay after school and help you help your child.  Try to make contact with other parents at the school.  Punish your child when he or she needs it.  Take away the TV, the Wii, the playtime out in the front of the house. 

Your son/daughter is good, loved, capable and has every reason to succeed.

 We are all in this school together.  Yes, the school needs to change.  The teachers need to change.  The district needs to change. 

Let’s change the one factor that we know that we have control of…..our son/daughter. 

The very reason you moved to this school is changing. 

Wednesday’s are pepperoni pizza for dinner.   Kids, you told me it was so good.  I think my pizza is so much better than any pizza place.

 I made the dough using a Fleischman’s Yeast recipe I found on the web.  I like this particular  pizza dough recipe because of the addition of sugar to the flours when mixing.   A bread machine was used to mix the dough and to provide a nice warm environment for the dough to rise. I think  the 1 tsp. of sugar in this particular recipe adds a richness to the taste of the crust.    Some of my other recipes exclude sugar.

The dough was allowed to rise for about 2  hours.   Only because we had piano lessons today and I did not have the time to complete the pizza before leaving the house.  The dough was made with white bleached flour and wheat flour.   I punched the dough down once and let it rise on more time.  

The dough was spread on the cookie sheet and left to rise for a few minutes before baking the crust in an oven at 450 degrees for 12 minutes.  I took out the crust and added the toppings while it was still hot.

Toppings: 

3/4 of the pizza was pepperoni, Mozzarella, Prego spaghetti sauce.  I always put a layer of cheese on the bottom and then again on the top.  I found out last week that if the cheese is not added to the bottom than the pepperoni and sauce slide off the crust. [usually you guys help me with the toppings but today I was too hungry to wait]

1/4 of the pizza was pepperoni, cheese, roma tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, papaya, pineapple.

The picture is not the prettiest but it was one of my better pizzas.  I usually make a pizza at our house every Wednesday.

This is what I made for you this morning.

Leave a comment and tell me what you think!

This is what I made myself.

I love to cook.  I am going to try to take pictures from here on out of what I cook.  My best recipes will be preserved for future family members.

Send me a comment and tell me what you think about my designs. 

 Here, here and here are some sites that are wonderful for inspiration. 

I am an interior designer and never knew it.  Now, if only other people knew it.   Here are a few shots of my interior walls.  I think really famous people should pay me $60,000 to pick all of the colors for their walls.

We moved into our new house five years ago and our walls were not white but a vanilla cream color.   Yuck!!!!  I love color.  I was a peacock in a previous life. 

Our walls needed some color.  The second reason to paint walls that were painted less that two weeks before:  We  needed  to upgrade our paint from water based to oil based paint.  At the time we moved in the kids were toddlers with sticky hands.  We needed walls that we could clean.    Our builder supplied walls were not going to cut it since first time I tried to clean a spot the paint came off all the way down to the sheetrock.  We upgraded color and we upgraded paint quality.  The Semi-Satin is stinky when you pain it on the walls but it is very wipable.

Keep in mind that men might not appreciate color as much as we do.  Girl eyes are more sensitive to the color vibrations I think.

Check out the pictures.  More to come.

Hey,  Mr.  or Ms. Class A Recreational Vehicle Manufacturer.  This post is for you.

Once again I am appealing to the gods out there in web world to send me a RV for the summer.    Recreational Vehicle companies, we are a family of 4 and we want to work for you.  All you have to do is let us test drive your latest and plushest RV for the summer and I will write a honest review of your product.  I will gladly pass out t-shirts and brochures to any person who admires our RV as we travel across the USA.   I live in Katy, Texas.  I am a PTA member and Homeroom Class Coordinator. 

Please contact me here at Mompaca.

Why?

Last time we traveled, I vowed to the heavens to never again stay in the germ-filled lair they call a hotel room.  All I can hear at night are all of the germs of strangers crawling around the room.  20/20 did a story on the amount of blood, feces and human body fluids on hotel surfaces.  You do not want to know what else they found.

 When we rent a hotel room for the night, the first thing I do is throw that yucky cover to the floor.  My kids do not get it.  They want to put their faces and hands all over those comforters.  I feel that I should invent hazmat vacation suits for my family and me when we go on vacation.

Please help us.  Operators are standing by (at least I am anyway)

I am so glad I did not marry Tom Cruise back around the time the movie Top Gun was in theatres.   What would have become of me?  Of us.

Back in 86′ I was a college student in Nacogdoches, Texas.  I thought he was so good looking hot.   He looked really caliente in that Air Force uniform.  His character was a little goofy but still confident with that dark tousled whip of  chestnut brown hair brushing his eyelashes.  At the time  I thought that I would marry him if he ever got a chance to meet me in a little college town (go Lumberjacks) in East Texas with a population of 30,000 and a name like Naco “Nowhere”.  

Yea, it could happen. 

I can hear that song by Berlin “Take My Breath Away”.  I could see myself on the back of his motorcycle flying through the East Texas pines.  He is telling me to lean in closer and make sure my arms are tightly around his chest.

What changed my mind?  Tom’s damage control interview on Oprah today and Friday.  I used to be a big fan.

I watched Oprah today and I think that Tom Cruise is so self focused it is crazy.   His ego actually changes his appearance to me.  He looks so wolf-like now. 

The whole time Oprah is asking him questions, I can read the thoughts in his little brain.  He is saying to himself….”I must sell more DVDs, movie tickets, merchandise. I can’t sell, sell, sell if everyone thinks I am some kind of narcissistic, lunatic, cult member, controlling, identity crisis marrying  a woman half my age actor.   I have to appear like a normal everyday husband with a million acre spread in Colorado.” 

Right.  Ewwww.  Yucky

I am glad I married my husband.  I am glad he is the father of my two kids.  I am happy being in the place I am in right now. 

Sorry Tom.  Thanks for the memories.

Dear Kids,

This is a solicitation story.  I believe in the philosophy of “The Secret”.  I believe that if I or you dream and realize the possibility that things will materialize then it will happen. 

So, I am always telling you to dream big and not to limit yourself to what people tell you is possible.   I asked both of you what you dreamed for this summer.   Peter, 6,  said he wanted to go to Lego land, Disney and Nickelodeon.  Jane, 8, said she wanted to a swimming pool with spa in the backyard.  Note:  There is no heavenly way a pool would fit in our backyard unless it was right up against the back door.   I chimed in that we should also have a spa attached.  I had to stop and remind myself that I too must dream big and not see any limitations to what I want.   You kids can’t see it until I myself show you how to see it.  The “it” is what you aspire to.  Whatever you think is what you want no matter if it is good for you or not (we will cover appropriate dreams and wants in other ongoing chats.)

My big summer dream is to go on a three week long trip in a recreational vehicle, RV, with my family.    Here is a picture of what I have in mind: 

I took this picture 2 years ago at the local Houston, Texas RV dealership.  There is one 6 miles from my house.  I drive by the place every time I go into downtown Houston.   Some mechanic ran out of the garage to see who was driving through the parking lot after-hours.

I know that some company out there in WWW will see this post and provide a RV for me and my family this summer.  In exchange, I will let the R&D department know what is right and what is right for a family of four in one of your beautiful RVs.  Our income is between the range of $0-$1 million.  My husband and I are both in our forties.  We are your demographic.  I will also write about your RV everywhere on the Internet …you know product placement. 

Please contact me at this blog. 

Here we go……ask and you shall receive.  I will keep you  updated.

My sweet, smart, funny daughter did not understand the instructions that were written in her planner for a homework assignment last week.  I usually check her homework before and after she completes her assignment.  After checking her work,  I was not sure if I or my daughter understood the instructions and what the finished product should look like. 

 I emailed my child’s teacher that night for confirmation of the homework writing assignment.   The next day, my daughter completed and turned in the assignment the best she could.    My daughter is an “A”, “B” student.  She loves school.  

The teacher responded back to my email with a rather long email rant. 

 The teacher stated the following:

1.  I am not supposed to help her do homework. 

2.  She, the teacher, does not have time to teach me how to teach what she should be teaching to my daughter.

3.   My daughter should in a perfect world where everything has been scientifically controlled for the entire time of my daughter’s birth already know how to do the assignment because the class has been covering this since the beginning of the school year.

4.  She also suggested I Google the subject for additonal practice materials.

I read the email and tears came to my eyes.   I was hurt.  I thought I was supposed to help my child.  Her piano teacher asks me to help her practice piano by counting beats.  My son’s soccer coach told me to practice rolling the ball to him so he could kick.  It had been at least 2 months since I had emailed the teacher about an assignment.  I really don’t think she was being mean-spirited. 

I think that the teacher was just tired.

Daugher, I love you.  A parent is supposed to help you help yourself.  I will not abandon you out in the rough seas without a paddle instead I will supply you with a sleek sailboat so that you may glide through the calm tropical seas of life.

Love, Mom

What I should have emailed to the teacher but did not:

Dear Teacher,

I understand that this teacher has 22 students that she must teach.  Student who at 8-years-old have different learning styles and different tempements.   I am not concerned with 22 students.  I am only concerned and responsible for one.  And since we live in one of the top 3 highest school tax districs in the state of Texas (Katy ISD),  I expect the best for my child. 

 I am an advocate for my children.  Instead you of typing out a 200 word email to me explaining why you did not think you had to help me help my child,  why couldn’t you simply tell me……………….how many  sentences are required for this particular assignment  since the students will use the mini-lesson as a guide during in-class work?  

Love, Mrs.  Polecat [A polecat is what we call a skunk in the south]

Daughter, just remember, always give teachers, employers etc more than they ever expect.  The minimum is a guideline not a limit .  Also,  remember you deserve to understand the assignment and to not get fustrated.  Always ask if you don’t know.

Here in my Houston neighborhood  I feel so alone. There are days when I feel like I’ve traveled to a foreign country and I never even wanted to go anywhere.   I only wanted friendly neighbors who wanted a good, safe,neighborhood.   I am not saying my neighbors do not want the same things but I am southern raised like a catfish and I guess I had some idyllic pictue in my mind. 

Robert Putnam, researched this issue in and published the results.  You can read it in http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x along with his conclusions .  His research results came to the conclusion that when new immigrants live in close proximity that there will not be much socialization.   He is not telling me anything I did not already know.  Sometimes research  sheds light on the obvious.  We just don’t know what we already know. 

Fact:  98% of my neighbors are Hispanic.    Nothing is wrong with this at all.  My neighbors are very reserved and are not too open to conversation.    I have attended their  kids’ birthday parties and they have attended my kid’s parties but the socialization stops when the party ends. 

There is no “we are all in this place together and lets help each other be great” mentality.   What this means to me is that there is no social cohesion in my neighborhood i.e. no block parties.  I am not looking for a utopian neighborhood only a neighborhood where I can make by delicious potato salad for everyone.

 Fact: 95% of my neighbors do not speak English as a first language.  My husband’s first language is not English BTW.   There is nothing wrong with that.  Being bi-trilingual is an advantage in the today’s world.   I think that in today’s world everyone should at least know how to speak 2-3 languages minimum and I hope my kids will learn many languages.

People in my neighborhood do not wave, smile or acknowledge my family when you drive or walk by.  In fact, I am so used to not getting any return smiles or waves that I have given up my usual wave and greeting.   It is not that they are excluding me and my family.    My family is not the neighborhood “loud music, dogs with no leash” bad family . 

They do not even acknowledge each other.    They do not wave or even visit one another’s house.   I have seen them talk to each other very few times out in the front yards.    What this means to me is that there is not social capital, solidarity or potlucks.

I would love to move but with the housing market right now we are not in the position.   I love my house.  I love my lot.  Plus, we just moved here 5 years ago into our newly built house.   We are lucky that there are no rentals and foreclosures next to us.  We all share economic stability and that is  wonderful in these times.

When we first toured the neighborhood we noticed that there was a diverse mix of people walking around and working in their yards.  This is Houston, Texas.  So, I do mean every race, skin color and culture.     That is what we wanted.  A good little stew to raise our little carrots and potatos in.   In the first week we walked around and met a couple of families in Section 1 who had kids our age and we had typical conversations.   Little by little in the past 5 years,  most of the American “cultured” families have moved out.   

 We had the sweetest little old lady who bought a new house for herself.   I used to pause, say hello and comment on her pretty flowers.    We talked about the best grass to plant in the new sod.  One family would chat with me about how they were decorating their new house. 

The neighborhood school has gone from students from 20% poverty homes to more than half which means now the elementary school is Title I.    The tests scores have gone down and the schools ranking has dropped a slot.  Also, there are not a lot of volunteers at the school.  Barely any participation in the PTA.  This has nothing to do with Mexicans or South Americans.  It has every thing to do with culture.  It is a measure of buying into the place we are in and making it a good place.

 We were the first house in section 2 which means that we were the only house on the block for several weeks.    I think the builder focused their advertising on Hispanics when they started to build the newer sections.  We did not know this nor would we have cared because we loved what we saw in Section I.   I think realtors were given a clue.   As other houses began to be built on our street,  I noticed that the people moving in were not very friendly.  I introduced myself and my kids to neighbors but they politely said “hello” and scurried back into their homes.   

This social alienation has gone on for 5 years.  Some of the children are becoming more fluent in English but the parents are reluctant to reach out.  Some send their kids to a different elementary school where the curriculum is targeted toward Spanish speakers.   A couple of the neighbors (we are lucky) are the world’s perfect neighbors but it is very difficult to understand them and for them to understand me.   All of our neighbors are honest, hardworking people who just want to have a good life.  However, they are new to the United States and are in a different place.  They want to be as quiet as possible.  They do not want to make waves or bring attention to themselves.  They probably think I am some type of smiling idiot.

When Hurricane Rita was abou to hit my husband was out of town and could not get back to Houston.  The only neighbors to check on us and ask if we needed help are the only American born neighbors in 12 houses.  The other neighbors boarded up their windows, climbed in their cars and left.  I was out in the yard trying to nail a piece of salvaged plywood to a window (I got lucky because all of Houston was out of plywood) with my children.

When we had a home invasion and a mom had a gun held to her head we were lucky to be told by one of our American “cultured” neighbors what happened.  I saw  some of the Hispanic neighbors talking to each other in Spanish and wondered if they were  telling each other about the incident because they felt more comfortable speaking in their own language.  I was home the day the crime occurred and I know the neighbors would have helped me.

When I visit friends, I notice that their diverse neighbors wave, smile and greet each other.  They socialize and have block parties.  They are in a different place.  They seem to be happy and content.  

If we thought that 95% of our neighbors would be people who just immigrated to the U.S. in the last 6 years and that they would hide in their houses day and night and that they were okay with no communication. then we would have not chosen to live here.  Not because of where these families are from but because my family  and I were looking for a different socialization experience.    There is no way to know if a new neighborhood will be what you want.

I still love my house though.  I will still continue to talk to my neighbors even though the conversations are filled with cordial greetings.  I know that in a few years they will probably be outside telling me that I need to trim around that tree out front.  And then I will have something else to gripe about.

Today I am trying to put the Com”crack”puter pipe down and shampoo the house.  It is a beautiful day in Houton.  We do not get many of these.  The oven is about to be turned on here.  It was already up to 88 degrees yesterday. 

 I feel that I expect too much out of my children, the neighbors’ children, children in my kids’ classes.   Maybe,  I am too set in my southern upbringing.   I need to relax and let the children be free. 

 What happened to “Yes” or Yes M’am”.  Today, my son referred to his teachers’ husband today by the husband’s first name.  I told my son that if he did not know the adult’s last name  then he should call the adult “Mr.  Bob” not just “Bob”.  I think what happened is that my son’s teacher refers to her husband by his first name when she mentions  him in class.  The teacher really needs to inform the kids about proper of etiquette.

Sometimes, our neighbors’ 8 year-old daughter shouts to me and my husband by our first name.  “Hey Jane” or “Hey Dick”.  She’s shouting and calling like we are all running around the playground at recess.  There have also been times when she has called us by our first names and her parents were standing right there smiling like we are all at a bar sipping kiwi martinis.

 As a teacher, I observed this quite often.  Students or children seem to feel that adults are just physically big equals.  The kids act like I have to show them some type of respect.  I say the respect goes to the person who has been out of diaper the longest. 

I know parents want their kids to not be restricted and silenced like they were “back in the day” but come on people “Parent-Up” here.  The kids are not little people who are our equal but are our charges who we are supposed to shelter and train until they can see some of the dangers we already know exist out there in the “Real World”.

Dear Children:

I just want to set you guys up for success because there are bound to be other people out there who feel the same way that mom does.

Today is one of those California days.  It is the perfect temp around 70ish, windy, sunny.  If a person did not know better they would think they were in California.

Today is piano lesson day and crochet day.  The day just runs away from me.  I cut off the TV.  Sick of the media telling me what to think about.  Kiddos, you have power over your own thoughts.  Make it a good day!  I think I will run outside and take a pic.  How about a pic in the same place for 7 days.  Hmmmmmm…