PATRIOTIC COSTUME DAY

Today must have been patriotic costume day. Amy, Mathieu and I went to Corpus Christi this morning, and when we passed this woman on South Padre Island Dr. I turned around and asked her if she'd mind if I took a photo of her with Mat. Later, in the afternoon, we were in another area and there was a guy by the road wearing an Uncle Sam outfit. We couldn't pull over at the time, so continued on our way to take Mathieu for a pit stop and get something to drink. Then on our way back we passed a thrift store, and the van swerved in there automatically. Honest. ;) After we came back out and retraced our path, Uncle Sam was nowhere to be seen. Mathieu was disappointed.

Our other stops were Party City, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, CrackerBarrel, The Catholic Shoppe, Home Depot...and I think that was it. Amy got most of the things she needed for Mathieu's Sponge Bob birthday party next month, and a John Deere cover for her riding lawn mower. We really enjoyed both the food and the shopping in Cracker Barrel. Amy got a really great I Love Lucy shirt, and some birthday presents for both Matthew and Mathieu. We both got some Easter things for the kids, and I got birthday things too. They really had some good toys there this time, and Mathieu had a ball looking at and playing with them, helping us decide what to get. I don't think we've ever had that much luck at Cracker Barrel before. I'm regretting not getting him the chatter teeth he wanted, too, though. They were $5, but 'iffy' plastic and with a winding mechanism that just didn't look reliable enough. Still,...only $5... Oh - and at Party City and the Thrift Store (where I bought quite a bit of stuff), I got Coconut a pink hula hoop and a soft, looong, crinkley, rattley, squeeky alligator baby toy. I want to teach her to jump through the hoop, like I did with the daschund I had as a child. Naturally, she is scared to death of it. But I did get her to go through it 5 times (and actually jump once) with the aid of chicken gizzards. And Chuck got her to go through it once tonight, by demonstrating how Carl didn't mind walking through it.
This evening, during commercials on Survivor, I called families of the junior high youth group. I need to get the paperwork in for registrations for the Junior High Youth Spectacular by Saturday, and only one parent had responded so far. Everyone was eager to go when I first brought it up, but no one is getting their registration forms filled out and returned. We have to pay quickly, and the fees are non-refundable and registrations are non-transferable, so it is kind of irritating. This isn't costing the students or their families anything. The parish is paying for it, but I don't want to pay $$$ and then just loose it. And after the calls tonight, I only ended up with one more 'yes' - everywhere else, I had to leave a message on a machine, and hope they get back to me quickly.