WHAT A DAY....You can say that again

So we headed out this morning for our trip to Corpus Christi.  We got a mid morning start but we really only had one task today so no rush.  We made a stop in town and then off we go.  I was driving while Charlie navigated, this is not our norm but I guess we decided to mix it up today. This will later prove to have been a bad idea.  Never mess with your normal mojo.  

Late this morning we drove through Poteet, Texas, the strawberry capital of Texas.  There wasn't much I saw to speak of except this adorable water tower.  Too cute.  We made a small diversion so I could get a photo and again off we go.  

Now I am still driving and we are about 2 hours into our trip.  I'm getting tired of driving and a bit hungry too.  In addition, my back, which has been hurting off and on for two months now, has locked up tighter than a....well, I don't know, but it's hurting.  I tell you all of this as I will need some sympathy VERY SOON!

We are exactly 39 miles from our destination and one mile from stopping to eat lunch and switch drivers when IT happens.  I see a cop car DRIVING on the other side of the divided highway while I am driving behind a horse trailer, in the slow lane on my side of the divided highway.  I knew when I saw him cross over that grass median with his lights on that he was pulling me over.  He didn't even ask me if I knew why he was pulling me over.  He just walked up, said I was speeding, asked me for my license and registration, and told me he'd be citing me for a violation of speeding.  And this is what a speeding ticket in the state of Texas looks like.... 

Now I don't know how I could be charged from across 4 lanes of highway and a grass median but he sure did it.  And it's not cheap.  It's gonna cost me $165.00. Unfortunately, it'll cost me almost that much in gas to drive back there and plead not guilty. Now I'm sure you are all wondering if I in fact was speeding....well, now, must you even ask things like this of me, a fine upstanding citizen. I'll say I was going what I guesstimate was about 75 miles an hour...c'mon the speed limit is 70...I was behind a horse trailer...in the slow lane!!!!!!  I was pretty bummed for a few hours because lets face it...I don't have lots of extra funds lying around for stupid stuff like speeding tickets, but what are you gonna do?  

Right before we got to the base Charlie managed to accidently kill a bird.  So gross!!!..it flew right into the grill of our car and it's blood, guts, and feathers were all over the windshield and stuck all in the front of the car.  Charlie was going the speed limit so I can't imagine what it would have been like if I, speed demon that I evidently am, was driving. 

Anyway, we got to Corpus and it's a little "divey" but the natural scenery is great.  Palm trees and water, and some beaches...if you squint it's kinda like I imagine Hawaii...of course I could just go and visit my sister who lives in Hawaii but the ticket probably costs $165 and I just used that money up! So here is our photo of palm trees, which incidentally was taken right after we killed that bird. 

 

We dropped Charlie off to do his paper work, checked into our waterfront view hotel room on base and managed to salvage the rest of the day quite nicely. **Just as a special note, the admin guy Charlie was here to do paperwork with said that the area I got my ticket in is a known speed trap....well known to all but me AGAIN evidently.  I guess everyone in his family has gotten a ticket there at some point.  So technically it's not my fault!  Right???

Moving on with our day....upon several suggestions, we headed to Pier 99 for dinner.  

We sat outside and the atmosphere is fun, the food is OK, and the view was great! We were able to sit right by the water and see the USS Lexington while we ate dinner.

After dinner, we were driving back to the hotel and we were on top of an overpass and looked down and saw a minor league baseball field. They were watering down the field and we could see folks heading into the ball park. Being the baseball junkies we are, we decided to go take in the game.  We zipped off the highway, parked, walked to the stadium in the heat, bought tickets and got into the stadium and realized we didn't even know who was playing.  We look at our tickets and to our pleasant surprise we see it's the Corpus Christi Hooks (?????) and the San Antonio Missions.  So we got to watch local teams and we rooted for San Antonio and they won like 13 to 0.  Super fun!

While the day was long, it was just awesome!  In the end, we spent our day as a family together, the kids saw that mommy isn't perfect and that even when she doesn't agree with the big mean cop, she is still respectful and that ultimately one bad moment doesn't have to ruin the whole day.  There were good lessons today...like set the cruise control and beware of police trickery!! Sorry dad!

Beautiful Summer Evening

Our town has a beautiful little common area, in the historic part of town, with a quaint gazebo. They have fairs, fests and concerts there regularly and tonight was the last in a summer series of a renowned  German band.  We were fully unprepared as we did not have enough chairs or a picnic dinner with us, (or a camera with a charged battery),  so we only stayed for a bit, but it was lovely.  

People are serious about these things.  There were people with coolers, picnic baskets, dollies with chairs stacked upon them and of course even folks who had made runs to Sonic, Subway, Wendy's, etc to bring something along.  We had two chairs and two water bottles for the five of us...boy we need to work on the locals thing. There were all kinds of girls and boys dressed up in traditional garb and there was even a grown man in his own Lederhosen...I'm not sure that was entirely necessary, but it did add to the ambiance.  

Here is a shot of a few of the young ladies and one little boy (who clearly is sad about something).

We relaxed for about 45 minutes before heading home for dinner but I imagine folks stayed much later.

We look forward to the next concert, where we will be fully prepared with much food, enough chairs for all of us and a camera battery that is fully charged.

On the way to town tonight, Brooke saw a help wanted sign at the Dairy Queen (which I've passed by a million times and didn't know it existed there) and said she wished she could work there??????(must be the lure of free ice cream).  The boys explained that she was too young to work and after a few minutes she said, most seriously, "ahhh, doesn't matter, I already have a job waiting for me."  I said "oh yeah, where?"  She said, again most seriously, "at the library in Valdez, they told me there would be a job waiting for me whenever I want to come back." Ahhhh, the innocence.  And while I'm telling Brooke stories...once I asked Brooke what she wanted to do when she grew up.  She mentioned a few things and said "...oh and also I want to be a librarian."  Wow, I thought to myself, Charlie and I have done a great job raising our kids. They are all avid readers, in fact Brooke loves reading so much she wants to be a librarian.  So I said "yeah I really love books too."  She said "no, I really wanna work there for the peace and quiet."  And there you have it!  She does love the quiet...we were making lasagne the other day and she asked me to be quiet while she was laying out the cheese.  I thought she wanted to concentrate, then she whispers...don't you just love how quiet it is when I'm putting on the cheese...don't talk when I do the next layer in a few minutes."  And I didn't!  AAAhhh...she's just a gem!  

Tomorrow morning we are off to Corpus Christi.  Should be fun...I'm hoping the recent hurricane didn't do too much to the town.  My battery is fully charged so, we'll see.  We are looking for the beach and some seafood. 

Bad Photo Alert...

Can anybody guess what I went and did today while Charlie went in for his first FULL day of work???

Sorry about the goofy photo but I had to share..Umm hmmm...I'm no longer a blonde...as if I ever was.  I'm back to the original color of my hair, minus the gray, and with a few blonde streaks...not really original at all is it??? I am going to try to grow my hair out long again, but that will only last until I get too hot one day (soon) and run to Great Clips or some other cheap-o hair salon and say "cut it off now".  

And apparently it looks like I am never wearing clothes but I promise I'm actually wearing two tank tops in this photo. 

Oh lets see, in other news I officially drank an entire gallon of sweet tea by myself today...better than soda I guess (probably not, but I like to lie to myself frequently, it helps me sleep at night).  

Important badminton update:  the neighbors sharing the fence behind us have officially sent all of our stray shuttlecocks back over the fence, so they must be good sports, but have remained silent even when we are all out there at the same time. Maybe they are just mesmorised, or intimidated, by our badminton skills.  They are wicked skills!  Each evening ends the same way (this should give lots of you insight into our family)...we go out to play as the sun is going down, at some point I get all hot and sweaty and announce that I'm going to sit down and watch.  Brooke then decides to stop playing so she can run a circuit around the backyard singing loudly while I name a different song for her to sing on each new lap, but the most hilarious part of the evening is the two-on-one badminton game between the boys and Charlie. The kids team up against Charlie and then the fun really begins.   It includes lots of trash talking, really funny stuff like..."oooh what's that I smell...oooh you just got burned", and "hey Miles, why don't you play and stop giggling like you are on your honeymoon", and then Zach starts yelling something about the Geneva Conventions??? and it all goes down hill from there.  I have to video it and post it because we are all in stitches by the end of it.  Charlie of course, stellar sportsman that he is, always wins even though nobody really keeps score.  I know it may not sound like it but it's really HI-sterical. (come to think of it this may be the reason none of our neighbors have invited us over for a BBQ...hmm...we may be considered "overzealous"  or some such thing like that.  No, not possible...it has to be all of "them"!

And can I get a shout out from my salsa winners?  How was that Texas salsa?  Let me know!

Just another day in paradise....

Although most of it was spent at Wal Mart...well, not so much most of it but more than one trip sadly enough.  We saw that the plant fertilizer and soil was cheaper there and since we can also buy food and milk at Wal Mart, we've decided to no longer fight it.  Although in all honesty, Target is my favorite.

Today I finished up the herbs.  I wanted to plant them in that rock bed/spider and ant haven behind me but who knows what the plan for the back yard is, so for now they will be in these little window boxes until I have a more permanent plan...ya' know, like packing up all our stuff and moving back to Virginia...did I say that out loud?  

Yes, I like Texas very much but lets face it...my heart will forever be in Virginia!  There I've said it! 

So here I am in all my sweaty glory (which clearly isn't so glorious), planting away.

Also, Brooke supervised my planting escapades.  Meanwhile she actually assisted Charlie in changing the lawnmower oil this afternoon.  He gets all the help around here.

She, like her brothers, lounged for most of the day.  Speaking of her brothers, baseball camp was a hit.  They really enjoyed themselves, despite the heat.  Here are some great photos of them in action!

Miles loves baseball, and is a great player too, and this was a chance for him to get back in the swing (oooh unintentional pun) after some time off. They had a small group of kids and coach who was a former MLB player. Fun stuff!

Zach also enjoyed himself this week.  He is also a great ball player...in the photo you can see him showing some of the other kids how it's done. His first at bat at the scrimmage on Friday was a home run. He even managed to recover from some fire ant bites this week which he endured during warm up exercises.  Living in Texas can be dangerous!

Hope your weekend was as lovely and lazy as ours.

Welcome to our patio

Just sitting outside, relaxing, and enjoying this nice, sunny day!!  No most days aren't like this but step into our patio....

Well, at least part of it.  This is our new BBQ (which has already been used a million times), new outdoor seating set, and of course old me. Our old BBQ and outdoor seating were looking a little worse for the wear after a move to and from Alaska so we found some folks who were more than happy to buy them from us to fund these new goodies. 

It rained all day yesterday which is good because we are in water conservation stage 2, no excessive use of water and I can only water my grass on Fridays between 3AM and 8AM and 10PM to midnight.  Weirdness. Life is so different from this time last year.   Our grass should start getting greener soon and the temperature has definitely cooled down.  Only like 90ish today.  

It has been sunny every day since we got to Texas, except for yesterday and I really noticed how the overcast skies put a damper on my day.  I was a bit grumpy until the early evening when the rain cleared and Charlie took everyone to get ice cream.  Oh, now I think about it, my mood may have improved because of the ice cream.  Maybe I'm the opposite of lactose intolerant...like lactose necessary.  Anyway, we went to Marble Slab Creamery and I had amaretto ice cream with Heath Bar crunch.  It was so DELICIOUS.  This ice cream was seriously good.

OOOOh...in other big news I started my herb garden.  I was able to snap up some basil and rosemary to start off with.  I'm sure the basil plant will be stripped of all it's leaves as long as I can find non-salmonella tomatoes.  Caprese salad has become an almost nightly staple here. The yummy mozzarella from Costco is always in my fridge now.  And just for the record, I'm back on the Southern style sweet tea.  It's an addiction.

Speaking of Costco, I cannot believe I lived two years in Alaska without having a Costco within normal driving distance and and without having a Target in the state at all.  It is incredulous to me that I survived. (use dramatic commercial voiceover voice when reading the next sentence). I now must think of myself as a masochistic pioneer of sorts having battled and won the freedom to once again shop freely at a variety of stores without using the internet and paying massive shipping charges.  

A post for another day (ok stop the weird voice now) is to discuss that a good portion of these United States does not view Alaska, and Hawaii for that matter, as a part of the US.  Or how about that most people don't realize that you can drive to Alaska, or that AK is the abbreviation for Alaska...not Arkansas, or that calling someone in Alaska means that you should observe the time change and that if you call at 6:59 am from a catalog company to say that they can't ship outside of the United States to Arkansas??????????, you shouldn't act like it's weird when I'm super cranky and half asleep.  

SHooooo, I need some ice cream now.  Charlie, oh Charlie, how about a little spin by Marble Slab Creamery, I'm lactose necessary!

  

Because I'm no quitter...and decorating your shuttlecock

C'mon who doesn't do these things.  First of all, because I'm no quitter we tried the jalapenos again tonight.  I used gloves and a few of them were still too spicy to eat but overall the ones that were edible were really yummy.  

The boys are doing a baseball camp every morning this week and they are loving it (yes I know it's Monday but I am hopeful).  But by the afternoon it gets really warm and we tend to stay inside.  In addition, we are a badminton playing family.  Seriously, even in Alaska we played in the snow....hello here is the proof...

Ok so fast forward to these past few weeks.  I think we've already established that the neighborhood here may or may not be able to tolerate us.  No one is out of their house in the early evening.  It feels like a ghost town when we are all out there, and I'm sure our neighbors wish we would stay inside too...it would be much quieter. 

Anyway, we have set up not one, but two, badminton nets in our backyard and we are playing nightly games..to include, lots of grunting, laughing, and yelping.  Well, yesterday we blew through our last shuttlecock...yeah that's really what they are called.  So Charlie stopped by Dick's to get more shuttlecock's today. (snicker, snicker)  

Because it was too hot to play earlier, we took the opportunity to decorate our shuttlecocks...because who doesn't do this?

This is what they looked like when we finished...

And here is Brooke...aka our badminton trainer, we'll call her "Kiki".  She insists on a few things when we play:

1) if you are playing doubles with her "you better BRING IT" - yes she really said that

2) you must run up to the shuttlecock to hit it over the net - move your feet- or get off the court and don't play 

3) and most importantly, if you make a point you should do "the sprinkler" to celebrate.

Oh and I guess you should wear a super cute outfit too while doing "the sprinkler", flip flops optional.

If you don't have a badminton set, go get one right now!!!!

Headline: Minor medical emergency keeps blogger away

Ok I know what your thinking...oh my goodness Crystal, are you OK???  Yes, Yes, Yes...I have managed to recover nicely but it was touch and go there for awhile.

Now, one wonders how these innocent looking little peppers could be a danger.  On Friday, on a mission to do something fun , yummy and interesting for my family I used these...

to make these, a recipe I found on another blog....oh, they look yummy, but danger lurks ahead my friends!

Ok so about 10 minutes after I halved, seeded and ribbed these puppies my hands starting tingling.  About an hour later my hands were on fire and didn't stop burning for ELEVEN hours.  I kid you not, I had to keep my hands in ice water for ELEVEN hours.  I made these at 6:30 pm and at 5 am the next morning I was finally able to use an ice pack to go to bed.  I almost drove myself (only because Charlie laughed himself to sleep about 1 am) to the ER at 3 am because I was really in that much pain.  (Let's remember I have a high tolerance for pain...I have birthed three children, naturally, weighing in at over 10 pounds each...I know pain!!) The jalapenos must have been seriously hot too because with all the seeds and ribs out, we couldn't even eat them they were so spicy hot.  Charlie who can tolerate hot stuff, actually choked when he ate one.

I was convinced I had mistaken jalapenos for serranos so I went back to the produce department to suggest maybe they label them better and was told "no, no senorita, those are jalapenos, grown in Mehicco so they are hotter."  MMM Hmmm, nice of you to warn the Texas newcomers 'bout these things.  I won't make this mistake again....gloves will be used next time. Who knew?????  Evidently everyone but me!!

In other news, bible/soccer camp is over.  Here is Brooke on her last day in all her sweaty glory. Shout out to Jenni who gave us these brand new cleats in Alaska...they fit Brooke perfectly.

She had a really great week.  It was the soccer and the bible stuff too.  She cannot stop talking about it.  We were home for about 15 minutes and she let out a long sigh and said " I miss soccer already!"  

And before I chemical burned my hands with the jalapenos, I pretty much finished the nuts and bolts of the office.  We have a few things to hang up in here but for the most part the furniture and books and papers are organized so thank goodness for that.  Now I have a place to blog from.  So when you picture me blogging, which I'm sure you do frequently, this is where I'll be. Just tip tapping away.  It's very beige huh?  Any suggestions for a good color for this room...it can't be beige...

And because I love that Brooke got her self dressed today and did her own hair and because this is one of those beautiful dresses from her grandparent's I thought I would leave you with this cutie girl picture.

Sweet girl!

Random Stuff

A couple random things we have going on...

So here we are on this very last day of vacation. Really it's the last day of vacation for both of us as Charlie is returning to work after what was almost 3 months of leave.  Now he's been working his tail off hanging out with us but tomorrow he heads back to a real job...the one that gives him the paycheck.  So since he's back at work tomorrow, that means so am I...it's all me again during the day.  I have soccer camp to take Brooke to, and sandwiches to make for lunch, and then at some point I really do have to tidy up the moving mess once and for all...I know it doesn't sound like a lot but Charlie is really helpful and I'm not sure I'm up for even making sandwiches without the assistance of another adult. I know, I'm lame!

For tonight...we headed out to one last dinner before the business of real life is upon us again. We had dinner at an adults restaurant, you know like...no kids menu and no offer of crayons and paper, except we took our kids.  It's always a crapshoot in these situations...you can almost see the wait staff cringe as you walk through the door and they look past you and your husband and see THEM...kids.  For the most part we behaved.  Everyone kept their cloth napkin in their lap and no one used it for a bib.  Someone did announce very loudly that they had to use the bathroom but the two finely dressed couples behind us were so busy talking about their cruises, and custom built homes and kids at Harvard Law School that they scarcely noticed the kids silliness. The food was excellent and the view of the little creek was great.  We took a walk after dinner and Zach took this shot of Charlie and I..not too shabby!

Brooke has become a mini me.  She likes to dress in the same colors as I am and carry a purse, etc.  Eight is great isn't it?  So here we are all decked out in our pink and brown.  My two favorite colors and, by default, Brooke's also. She's just too cute these days...I mean when she's not being a total sassy pants...which, since I've said that, means I'm probably going to hell because as I was reminded at least 30 times since yesterday that "even saying things in a mean tone" is "a sin." Doggone it that soccer bible camp.   

And in case there was any question as to whether I was truth telling about the Shell gas station/butcher shop here, I have the proof (as if I would lie about these things...we all know lying is A SIN!!!!).  We once again found ourselves there yesterday...for lunch of all things.  This was my first time here so I was sure to bring my camera on the off chance that I wouldn't be returning.  You may have to enlarge the photo but it says there on the building that there's a butcher shop inside. There is actually a dining area too.  We had BBQ sandwiches (remember Charlie's first and second requirements for a great BBQ joint are that 1. it should look like it's violating multiple health codes and 2. that it could send any, or all, of us to the ER)  We brought the sammies home....listen a girl can only tolerate so much...buying my lunch from a gas station was kind of pushing it to begin with.  I am happy to report that the deli/butcher area is very clean and the food was again edible and tasty.  Oh lord what has happened to me...I left Virginia two years ago and was a perfectly sane person and since then I have been to and from Alaska, and lots of scary places in between, and now I am eating lunch from a Shell station...Is it all the sins I've committed?  I think we all know the answer to that...my tone alone has me in trouble, I don't even want to think about the sarcasm.  

I know I was surprised to find that some people view me as extremely sarcastic...mostly Charlie, but whatever!

OK so I am going to play badmitton in the backyard, in the sweltering Texas heat...mmm hmm, it's no longer a dry heat, just really sticky or is that my arm pits? 

Happy Bastille Day, Part Deux

That's "part two" for any of you who are non French speakers.

So this evening we ventured into the city and went to la Madeleine for dinner.  It was the only French restaurant in our dress code and budget (and it's not super cheap, so it almost wasn't in our budget). 

We were greeted with a welcoming "Bonjour" to which we all said "Bonjour and Happy Bastille Day"...we are a big cheesy family!  We also spoke in a really bad french accent the whole time...except for Charlie who really can speak French and Zach who can do lots of great accents.

We all ordered yummy stuff...

Brooke went with the croque monsier  (grilled ham and cheese) and fruit.  Plus she ordered a cup of strawberries with a balsamic dip for dessert. I'm actually surprised she was still awake after all the praying and soccer playing this morning.  Just as a by the way, she has a beautifully drawn picture of heaven, adorning her room, and every thing she has said this afternoon has had a religious tone or reference.  Note to self:  take the poor child to church and save myself from the wrath of hell.

OK, moving on, Zach had the quiche lorraine, with a side field salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  He chose not to order dessert as he was all filled up on dinner.  But he did have a little sample of everyone else's dessert.

And for Miles, adorned in one of the shirts from Charlie's mom, the Cordon Bleu with green beans almondine and a side Caesar salad.  He also chose a crepe with strawberries and a sweet-0 sauce for dessert.

Charlie and I had yummy meals too.  I had spinach quiche and Charlie had an awesome savory beef crepe.  And Charlie also had some kind of strawberry torte that was  really good.  He always has had good taste...well of course, he picked me....*wink*

Good stuff, but also just fun to take the kids out and celebrate something fun, that didn't involve buying gifts or making a big production.  Just some fun family time and goofing around together.           

See we did do something cheesy...everyone's meal included some kind of cheese.  

Hoping everyone else had a great Bastille Day...even if you didn't know it was Bastille Day!  

Bonne nuit mes amis!                                            

Soccer Camp

Brooke has been excitedly awaiting soccer camp since we signed her up two weeks ago.  She has been counting down the days.  This morning was the first day of the camp and she was not a bit nervous.  She came down at 6:30 this morning fully dressed and ready to go.  The camp is 10 minutes from here and started at 9 am.  Needless to say we weren't late.

It was sponsored by a local church and actually, unbeknownst to us, ended up being somewhat of a Vacation Bible School/soccer camp.  The heat was extreme...95 this morning so they did skills work this morning, then took a 40 minute break to snack, rehydrate, and talk about God and the glory of Heaven and then after that they did scrimmages until noon.  It was an interesting mixture of elements, but Brooke loved it!  

She is really a good soccer player.  She has played one season before this and was not at all aggressive but has always had good skills.  Today she had great skills and she had just the right amount of aggressiveness.  She was the youngest kid in her coed group but she was right in there in the thick of it.  Here are a few shots of her with the ball helping out her team. 

She has on the green penny and is really putting her all into it.

Brooke was very good about finding the ball and passing it to her team mates.  As I said she had a really great time.  

On a side note, today is Bastille Day and we have a fun activity planned for later. Check back and see how we celebrated France's "Independence Day".  It is sure to be "cheesy." 

On Why Charlie May Be a Better Parent and a Better Person than Moi

• Because admittedly he has, physically, worked harder than anyone else during this move
• Because he is almost finished with this closet project, but probably would have already been done if he hadn't been taking time to include and teach all 3 of the kids about construction, electricity, dry walling, etc and allowing each of them to actually participate in lots of ways.
  
• Because when we go to Home Depot by ourselves, he stops at Starbucks and gets me a Mocha Frappucino
• Because he went out day after day with Zach and Miles looking for just the perfect bikes
• Because he has been going to bed between 1 and 2 am and he still managed to drag himself out of bed early this morning because Brooke was standing beside the bed asking for "someone to please make Easy Bake Oven Pop Tarts" with her...and he did! 
• Because I could be here all day listing good things that he does for our family! 
• But mostly because he doesn't get why any of these things is above and beyond normal.

What a really great guy! A really tired, overworked, probably physically and mentally sapped really great guy!!  We love him! 

One of my favorite things...

Ice cream...specifically, Breyer's ice cream, oh who am I kidding...ice cream of any brand is fabulous.  But of grocery store options, Breyer's is one of my favs. Tonight, or should I say this morning...it's almost 1 am and we have semi-successfully installed some window blinds...so I am enjoying a little midnight snack before I hit the hay.  

Breyer's Caramel Praline Crunch is so so so so yummy!  Go buy yourself some today and give it a try.  I'll wait while you run to the store and get yourself some...oh look, my Valdez friends are already back from the Eagle... and they walked! It's seriously delicious...isn't it?  

It's even better way late at night and when eaten directly from the carton and not shared with your children, then hidden behind frozen broccoli..what?  I DO NOT have food issues...who said that? 

Umm, did someone say "taking a break?"

I certainly misspoke.  Break taking we are not!!!

Early this morning Charlie got up and dug a small trench to bury some newly installed satellite cables.  Then he went and got himself a haircut this morning, in preparation for returning to work.  He called his boss and somehow ended up with another week off?????  Don't ask me how these things happen but they do. Now everything that happened after this today is a direct link to this hair cut thing.

Now we have been busy and as we come to the end of this move in, Charlie could use some actual rest and relaxation (I've been "forcing" myself to rest and relax along the way...you know, as a responsible parent and spouse).  But who are we kidding...we are talking about Charlie...Chuck...whatever you call him.  During our first trip to Home Depot to get red ant killer (yeah discovered a sweet little mound of those yesterday while mowing grass) he just wanted to price check some items and on his SECOND trip to Home Depot today he gathered all the supplies for his latest home project.  This is one of those times when I "mentioned something" and within moments things are whirling around me and the "thing" is happening.

In this case, Miles got the bedroom that was deemed an office by the builder.  It has a smallish closet and it had glass french doors.  Well, no more.  We (and when I say we I mean "the boys") are removing the doors - walling in half of the space to extend the closet and putting in a real bedroom door.  

As you can see they are very busy (and even though Charlie got a haircut he is still sporting some version of a goatee with half grown out beard...weirdness).

So instead of coming downstairs and actually finishing the organizing of the office space, which was my self assigned task today, "the girls" made peanut butter cookies.  It was a really yummy distraction.

And as you can see some of us didn't wait until the cookies were baked to start snacking.

As a recap:  we are not quite completely settled in and there is dust flying and a perfectly good wall is being somewhat destroyed to make it even better.  But, sometimes you just have to stand by and watch the dust fly and know that your handy husband can frame, drywall, paint, do minor electric work and install closet doors in a timely fashion...and all the while eat lots of really yummy, homemade peanut butter cookies.

Taking a break

Why must the last few boxes take sooo long to unpack. It seems that we were chugging along and then suddenly with the end very much in sight we have come to a stand still. No one is motivated to unpack the last little bit, because face it, we have plenty out and about now to amuse us. There is no driving force or wonder about what is in those boxes. We may never know unless something particular comes up missing and we have to go searching for it. In fact, there were those among us, me, who suggested putting them in the garage and being done with the whole project. That will not happen! Charlie will go through them, and he will unload them, and leave them in a nice pile until I finally announce to all involved that the things in the pile must be put away at once or I will go get a trash bag and send them on their way. It's an imperfect system, but it seems to work for us.

On the steak front...no one got sick, the steaks were very tasty, and we are talking about heading back to the Shell sometime soon to get another order of ribeyes. I suppose there are some who are still cringing at the steaks from a gas station thing...oh wait, that's me... but they were really good.

Not much else to report...except it did rain for a good part of the afternoon. This is good since we are in a drought here. Funny to have moved from a cool temperate rainforest to a dry hot desert. (Yes, I know that was redundant, but it's my blog and it sounds very descriptive).

Stay tuned tomorrow for my ramblings on the benefits of the Tempurpedic mattress. It is truly a "magical" night's sleep...and if that's not in the literature...it should be! I think I am looking younger with every night's sleep...that should also be in the literature...even if it is stretching the truth a bit...ok fine a lot, and the fact that you can't feel other people tossing and turning (or getting out of bed to make plans on moving a shed 40 feet north in your own back yard...now there's a story) I won't bother you with my mattress info but I am sleeping well...I know you'll all sleep better yourselves, knowing this. I will however probably tell the shed story as soon as it has transpired...which according to my husband will be very soon.

Happy 4th of July

I'm hoping our neighbors can handle the Nowak family because we do like to celebrate a holiday, any holiday...as in Bastille Day is coming up soon and that's a reason to celebrate and as in, who cares if we celebrate Chanukah and Christmas and Kwanzaa....or that we know that Gung Hay Fat Choy is the greeting for Chinese New Year..we like holidays and we like to have a good shindig to eat great food and get together with friends and family.

 No friends or family available this year but we did get up bright and early to put out our plethora of american flags all around our front yard.  Look closely and you will see them lining our really bad "landscaping" in the front.  

Today we spent here at the house, unpacking more boxes and doing some fairly productive projects.  We assembled the new BBQ and the lawnmower, installed a ceiling fan in Miles' room, repaired some scratched furniture, and managed to eat a really yummy steak dinner. We got to eat off these new plates that we received as a housewarming gift.  They are so appropriate since we are in beef country. 

And speaking of beef, where would you buy said steaks for your BBQ?  Think hard....of course, you would buy them at the local Shell...yes, as in gas station.  Evidently, THE place to buy steak here is the local butcher shop located in the gas station.  So bizarre I hardly believed Charlie when he told me about it but, ahh yes, Miles, as my witness, confirmed.  My husband got this info on a hot tip from a local.  Frightening!!!!!!!!!  But I have to say, the steaks were really yummy.  I'm just hoping I'm not a victim of eColi poisoning or mad cow!

As you can see they were lovely little morsels after they came off the new BBQ.  

We then proceeded into town for fireworks, which were very nice, and then back home for sparklers and those little snap on the ground thingies. I'm sure our neighbors are truly loving us! It was a very nice day and we are feeling like this Texas thing is really working out for us.

Ahh yes, and one last oddity of the day....we brought our studded tires from Alaska because we were unable to sell them up there where they would have been useful and it was a great deal. So on a lark, and an attempt to free up some space, Charlie posted them on Craig's List here and within 7 hours he sold them????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????  It is beyond me how that was possible.  Seriously....someone bought them.  That's why I call him lucky Chuck...things really seem to go his way!!

Hope you all had a fantastic 4th of July too!

We have a situation....

This was a good day!

This is how our day started yesterday at 8:55 am.  It was a welcome sight to see all of our stuff arrive in the crates.  These are only half of the crates.  The other half of them came after lunch time.  Most things arrived in good order but there were a few damaged items.  Most of it is minor to moderate damage...nothing  was completely destroyed....but we still have some unpacking to do.  Ahhhh...speaking of unpacking....here is the shambles my kitchen is in currently.  And I've put some things away already. I really hate this part of moving! 

So right about now Charlie is reminding me what a great idea it is to have so many kitchen gadgets and such.  I know in a week I'll be happy as a lark in this kitchen but for now I am mumbling bad words under my breath (and sometimes out loud too).  Trust me when I say this...moving SUCKS! 

The kids are being a great help too....

They are figuring out the Direct TV system so that we don't have to later when we can actually sit down and relax.  These are the times when you jump for joy at having teens and preteens to figure out the electronic gear that you are not inclined to and just plain too stupid to figure out. And since they, for the most part have unpacked their rooms, they are just plain bored.  But not for long...they are signed up for baseball and soccer camps starting very soon.

Finally, here is an official WELCOME TO TEXAS YA'LL......

We do have one room completed in the house.  The kids bathroom upstairs is newly decorated in the Texas theme.  As we like to do, we throw ourselves into each and every state we move to and EVERYTHING here has a Texas star on it.  Frankly, I think we are neighborhood outcasts because we don't have a metal star hanging on the front of our house right now.  

I'll be posting more progress as it happens..mostly, so I can take breaks from unpacking because moving really does bite.