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Cute Kate

Today at the dinner table, Tanner warned Kate not to tell me what they had been doing in my office. I cocked an interested eyebrow (who wouldn't?), but refrained from saying anything as I thoughtfully munched my lasagna. I did wonder about it, but I assumed it had to do with bugs. Kate put down her fork and nodded her head and said, "Don't worry, Daddy. I won't tell her anything about mashing the bugs up in the office."

Sunday, Sunday, that's my funday!

The girls are having a really hard time adjusting back to Central Daylight Time! They refused to fall asleep last night, so Sunday morning was no cakewalk. We dragged them out of bed at 7:30 and barely made it to church in time for me to play with the orchestra.

It's so nice to be able to exercise in music. It's been a long time since I've done any group music work, and it feels comfortable to be working with so many talented people. I found out that the woman who heads up the orchestra is the orchestra director for the middle school here in C.S. I hesitated to mention to her that I taught violin. There is nothing more annoying than people who use churches to "network" and get ready made clients, so I didn't mention it to her at all, but yesterday, I was talking to the bassist, and we got talking about teachers and stuff like that. I guess the director overheard us because she asked me if she could put me down on her list of violin teachers at her school. Isn't that just way cool?

Well, for all of you that want a baby update: Georgie is now fully sitting up on her own. Right now, she's sitting in the middle of the living room eating rice crackers, and cooing and giggling. Wow, my little baby is already growing up. Kate and I picked out a new toy for her yesterday. She loves it, and spent about 45 minutes playing with it when we first gave it to her.

I wish I could post her bathtub photos, but I think my blog would get shut down over something like that, so I'll have to email them to the grandmas. I can't leave Georgie unattended anymore. She actually manages to scoot across the room these days, so floor management has become my obsession. I use to think my mom was nutty because she always noticed the trash on the floor, but now, I realize SIX kids will do that to you! Old habits die hard, right?

Speaking of being a mom...my mom always use to shake her head and say, "What I do for my kids..." and yesterday, I understood the full meaning of the word. Kate wanted to see Monsters Vs. Aliens REALLY badly. She begged for it. Well, they shot the thing in 3D. Sigh...I knew that motion sickness was in my future, but I took her to see the movie yesterday afternoon. What I do for my kids...I only recovered after a long nights sleep and a large quantity of 7up.

Thunder storms and Lightning strikes

Wow, what a day! The morning began ominously. Reagan woke up with an upset stomache and kept me busy for most of the morning. I finally got her settled down for a nap and started to work on my blog. Right after I finished writing the last blog, I heard this ominous rumble. I took a quick look outside and saw blue skies. I shrugged my shoulders and had decided to keep surfing, when my mom's voice seemed to echo around me with dire warnings about lightning and computers and electricity and stuff like that, so like a good daughter, I shut my computer off and unplugged it.

Within thirty seconds this huge, black cloud rolled over our house with a big crash and the floodgates of heaven opened. Only people living through a Texas sized thunderstorm know what the floodgates of heaven look and sound like: huge droplets of rain the size of baseballs, lightening cracking on every side folllowed by deep rolls of thunder that shake the walls of the house and cause knick-knacks to fall off the shelf. The sky grew so dark that I had to turn on the lights for us to be able to see.

I heard lightning strike not far from our house. The flash and the bang came simlutaneously and shook the windows. I didn't realize how much lightning does sound like a crack. I thought that it happened in the field and half expected to see one of the trees fallen over.

I was thankful that both Reggie and Georgie were asleep. Consoling either of them would have been difficult, but caring for both would have been impossible. Kate didn't seemed to be the least perturbed by the noise. She sat next to me and helped me write Easter cards. She drew several lovely pictures, and then we settled down to practice a little reading. I didn't dare turn on any appliances, so we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I also learned the meaning of a storm blowing itself out. Strong winds began to blow and after about two hours the storm rolled away and was replaced by cool, blue skies and a warm, yellow sun.

So, I took a walk to Target to buy some wasp and hornet poison for Tanner to use outside and 7up for Reggie.

....flower girl cont...

I think the picutres speak for themselves. You can tell who the center of OUR attention was. :-)

A wedding through the eyes of the momma of the flower girl

Here she is with Tutu getting ready for her big day!

Yes, we definetly needed to take this picture! Wow, is she ready for her prom or what? Senior pictures, here we come!

Of course, everyone can tell who was the focus on the dance floor....

Isn't this just a beautiful wedding party?

Sticker Shock!

Well, after living here for almost 3 months, I realized that I needed to figure out how to pay for the garbage. I had already received the bill for electricity, and somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I remembered that electricity came on the same bill as the water, but I couldn't recall paying for garbage service. So, I spent the last hour searching through all of our papers for some sort of notice. When that failed to turn anything up, I resorted to the internet, and spent another 20 minutes searching. And then...I found this quaint little word called "sanitation" mentioned on the city's website. Aha! I then added sanitation to my google search, and came up with......nothing. Hmm... I couldn't figure out who provided garbage service.

Well, I grabbed my electric bill and looked it over. Don't know why. I was just really frustrated, so out came the lovely little bill. It said: Electric - $20.44, Water - $14.40, Sewer - $16.54, Storm Drainage - $5.00, Sanitation!!!!! Eureka! Sanitation - $16.54. I just love Texas.

A normal day.

How odd. Today was a very normal day. We all tumbled out of bed at around the same time. We all ate scrambled eggs and toast with yummy jam from Grandma Howell and then we washed dishes, got the mail, worked on potty training, diaper changing and laundry folding. Then, I decided that I had done enough work, and since I was feeling just a trifle stressed, I loaded the kids into the stroller and walked to Krogers to do my food shopping.

The sky was a dull gray, and I half expected it to be rather cold. I put on a jacket and made sure that the girls were all wearing warm clothes and had extra blankets in the stroller. Imagine my surprise when I stepped outside and found out that it was about 76F. Close your eyes and try to imagine the humidity. It's Portland on a warm, wet, rainy day, only the rain won't fall. For me, it was perfect walking weather.

I upped the walking temp a bit in hopes of wearing the kids out for a nice, long nap. When we reached the store, I assigned shopping cart duty to Kate. She did a great job pushing the cart. She helped me pick out our fresh veggies for the week, and she managed to make it through the whole trip without once ramming the cart into the back of my heels. I love it that Krogers is only about a mile away from us, so the round trip makes a very nice workout. It also limits what I can buy when I walk so I do a lot less impulse shopping. Though I did end up with a couple of bottles of conditioner that were in the clearance cart.

When we got home, Kate ran to get the mail, and there was a reminder that she needed to sign up for Frogs Level 3. I was so proud of her. She had passed Level 2! So, we went inside and made lunch, folded more laundry, fed Georgie, potty trained a little bit more, changed more diapers, cleaned up an accident, and all of the sudden it was 4:00.

So...we piled into the car and drove to Central Park so I could sign Kate up for her next class. There I learned that her lessons started at 5:30 tonight! Whoops, no dinner made, so we drove back home, got Kate dressed in her swimming suit, drove to McDonalds and then dropped her at swimming lessons while we made a mad dash to the bank. Whew! We then picked Kate up from lessons, grabbed a cup of joe from Starbucks and swung by Walmart to pick up my solar powered dryer (clothesline). Then...we came home. Made more dinner, since Reggie was asleep when we went to McDonalds. Fed Georgie her dinner, and then sat down in my rocking chair, wondering what in the world did I do today????

Hallelujah!

YAY! It's my favorite piece of music to sing since the sopranos get to punch out a bunch of f's and g's. I LOVE singing WAY too LOUD! Woohoo! Gives you such a buzz and the high lasts at least a couple of hours. It's been a long time since I've sung this chorus with a real choir, and boy does it make a difference when there are a bunch of people that can actually count and sing in tune.

Tanner had the day off, so he let me sleep in. Um...I woke up at about 1:00 this afternoon. Dragged myself out of bed and downed a sizeable cup of coffee. For some reason, I suspect my body clock is just a little messed up. After I was mobile, Tanner went outside to work on the flashing on the east side of our house, and assess whether we'd have to replace a bunch of the wood. The jury is still out on that last part, but he did finish the flashing. Hopefully, the end of this week will see the bathroom water tight.

Boy, did we have a Texas sized rain storm tonight. There was thunder and lightening and swirling winds and rain the size of golf balls. It looked like monsoon weather, and in fact there was a tornado watch tonight, but like one of the girls in my orchestra said, "there's always a tornado watch and we've NEVER had a single tornado." She's 16, and has lived in C.S. her entire life. So, don't worry. I'm not.

Arrived safe and sound to a wonderful place called Texas

After a short sojourn in the cold, wet, grey land of Portland, Oregon, two plane flights later, a short tram ride, a shuttle ride, an hour trying to figure out how to fit everything into the back of our car and a two hour car ride, we are finally sitting in our own home, deep in the heart of Texas.

Well, actually, we're not deep in the heart. Most would consider it barely out of Houston.

We endured the cold winds, the drizzling rains and the grey clouds with great fortitude, but it's nice to back to 76 degrees and sunny. Yes, it really is 76 degrees today. Aaahhh! True, it is a little muggy, but I'm looking forward to wearing shorts and a t-shirt tomorrow morning, and maybe going for a walk with the girls.

Back to the plane trip...Joanelle and Josh dropped us off at the airport. Oops...have to back up even further...I tried to pack all of our stuff last night and discovered that we didn't have enough room, so I dragged my dad to Fred Meyer and bought a couple of suitcases. Luckily, we actually need new suitcases. The one I brought on this trip is on it's last leg, broken zipper and all. So, I filled up the two new suitcases with all of the stuff I bought from IKEA and Target. Then...my parents came over in the morning for breakfast...then, Joanelle and Josh dropped us at the airport. Lots of hugging and kissing between Emma and Kate, and then they left.

Kate was very sad. Very despondent. I asked her if she was excited to be going back home, and she just shook her head. I reminded her of swimming lessons and she just shrugged. She just misses Emma.

Well, Georgie did very well on the airplane this time around. I was concerned because she had a cold and I expected the worst, but she slept most of the trip or was happy to play with her toys. Reagan also did very well. She played with toys and took a nice long nap. The only tough part of the journey was the car trip back to C.S. Georgie cried for most of it, but we made it without incident.

I find it weird that I don't have any plans to visit PDX in the near future. I guess this visit was sort of my pacifier, and now my pacifier is gone. I think I'm going to miss Spades night and the quick Starbucks trips the most. Nose to the grindstone time, and lots of praying for guidance, faith and strength.

Getting all of our STUFF

Wonder of wonders, we actually managed to purchase all of the materials that we need in order to re-roof and re-side the house. What perfect timing God has. We weren't sure that we would have the funds to do both, but then we got this little coupon in the mail that gave us 10% off of our entire purchase, so it made buying the shingles and underlayment just barely possible. Whoopee!

Now, we just have to find the time to actually do the job. It is getting very difficult to get anything done now that Tanner works. Plus, I threw my back out doing something, don't know what, so I've been unable to help him for the past week. I just hope my back doesn't hurt while we're flying to PDX this week.

We've definetly decided to take out some of the windows in this house. I think we'll end up reducing the number by at least four perhaps five. The house will be more energy efficient, and windows are expensive to replace whereas framing in a new wall only costs a few dollars. When Kate requested that we paint our house pink, Tanner explained to her that pink is a color that belongs on the inside of a house not the outside. She frowned and said, "but our house in Clackamas is pink..." Aaah! Revelation! We've decided, or perhaps I should say Kate has decided, to paint this house burgundy with dark brown trim that way according to her, Emma will be able to find our new house.

One of my student's dad is an avid reader, and I was commiserating with him about leaving books behind. He and his wife had left behind quite a number of books when they had moved to Thailand a couple of years ago. They had gone as computer science teachers for 2 years. I told him about having to get rid of about 80% of my books because we couldn't afford to ship them to Texas, and he in turn told me about this great little book store called Halfpriced Books.

Hehehe...I finally made it to the store just a couple of days ago. Oh, boy, it really is half price. It's similar to Powell's bookstore, just a little smaller, and it's only 2 blocks away. So much for the food budget, right? Who needs to eat when they can read?

Tom & Sneer, Gazelles, $0.01/Pound

Tom has moved out of our basement. According to supposition, he has taken up yet another permanent residence elsewhere. Even now, he has likely rented some room in a dumpster, storm drain, or alley where he feels his daily bread is slower and also much less susceptible to shortages. He had, though, inadvertantly caused a shortage of "outside/crawl space" family members for us. Tom might be relieved to know, however, that after only one week his vacancy has been filled by Sneer.

Sneer is gradually becoming quite the loyal, if not timid, pet. Whenever I am working outside, he can be found nearby, watching intently. In fact, he may have originally acquired his name because he'sNear all the time (Get it?). Interestingly, he says that Sneer was the original name for his species back in the days of Adam. He proudly claims that the species name had to be changed because his ancestors had turned it into such a derisive joke. He deserves the name, though, if for no other reason than that Sneer is the first sound he makes each morning. He has recently delighted us all by informing us that he will be staying at House for some time (Apperently there has been no shortage of insects) and that he has learned to say "Meow".

Yesterday I rented a U-haul for $20, budgeted $40 for dump fees and took as much of my house as would fit inside the truck to the city landfill. While acquiring directions over the phone I was told to take the exit and drive 2 miles (in Texan that means between 1 and 30mi), then to "Watch for Gazelles" so that I'll know where the dump is located. No kidding, that's what I thought he was smoking, too! If I'm that close to the dump, why not have me look for maybe...say, a DUMP! So, I drove down the correct road for two miles. I kept telling myself that I was looking for Gazelles, but...

O.K. Timeout to clarify the following: I know that all y'all (that's several groups of yous, plural) think we live on the plains of Africa, but Gazelles down town are like Hippos under the Glenn Jackson Bridge.

...Gazelles, but since I couldn't help feeling like I was being taken in I kept looking for the actual DUMP. I was just beginning to appologize to everyone who'd ever been on a "Snipe hunt" when I was nearly run off the road by a heard of long horned ponies bounding away from a lion on the Serengeti plains. Really, now?! Long horned cattle, I understand. It's a pride thing. But gazelles?!

The city dump that I drove past while looking at the gazelles amounted to a sign to a scales and a dumpster. There was a buldozer up on top of the hill, but no mess, clutter or dumpiness of any kind. Weird! I drove onto the scales and asked Dr. Livingstone some questions. When I was pretty sure he'd answered (it's hard to tell, sometimes), I dumped my stuff, drove back onto the same scale and saw that the price for dumping my load was $4.30. Being the honost chap I am, I asked if there could be some mistake in the fee. Bottom line, the price for dumping had gone all the way up to 1 cent per pound. I guess he thought that if I didn't want to be taken advantage of, then it was up to me to check the the price first. Rough place, Texas.

P.S. I'm not sure, but I think I briefly saw Tom at the landfill, too. He was chasing long horned rats.

Texas Rain

Well, we finally experienced our first rainy day in Texas. Initially, we laughed at all the people we saw running hurriedly into buildings with their parkas and knee high boots. After all, the temperature was a mild 56 F, and it was ONLY rain! Our curiosity was piqued though, when we noticed that about 60% of the girls around here were running around wearing rubber boots, albiet very cute rubber boots. It rained for 2 days. And, only those in the Northwest can understand what we mean when we say that it was a very wet rain. Big, huge drops that create fifty small droplets when it hits your head. It was a thorough soaking. But still, we couldn't understand the reason for the rubber boots.

There were all sorts, boots with stripes, boots with polka dots, rubber boots with little fur cuffs at the top. We had never seen such a myriad of different rubber boots. Our experience with rubber boots amounted to a single style and color: knee high, black. There was a tiny fad back in the 90's where there was a small rubber boot with lacing, but that didn't last for very long. They just weren't practical for the Northwest. Either buy a good, sturdy winter boot or a long, elegant dress boot, but why wear a rubber boot?

Then, we decided to go to the Post Oak Mall which is less than a mile from us, and if it had been sunny, we probably would have walked, but since it was raining, and we still have a little baby, we decided to drive and let the kids play in the play place. We were walking through Macy's and I saw these really cute rubber boots. Now, here I have to admit to peer pressure. Here were all these lovely girls going around with cute rubber boots, and I didn't have a single pair, so I succumbed to the pressure and picked up the boot. Tried it on. Really cute. Hmmm...should I or shouldn't I? Well, I thought I'd check the price. I mean, it was Macy's, so the price was probably going to be steep. I turned the boot over and saw the Roxy label, and was just about to forget it when I saw that the boot only cost $12. Hmm...some more. Tanner shrugged and said why not? So, I bought the boot though I still hadn't figured out why everyone seemd to wearing them.

Well, after an hour of playing in the play place (we were waiting for Home Depot to call us with a proposed discount thing since we were buying so much STUFF from them), we got the call that made us all pile into the car and go back to Home Depot. We parked. Opened our doors, and I stood up, expecting my foot to be on solid pavement. Instead, my foot went into 2 inches of running water. Yup. No kidding. The rain was falling so thick that the pavement was covered in a sheet of water. My sock, my shoes, my foot: soaked.

And then I undestood -- the light bulb went off -- the Point of Revelation -- the answer to my question -- Why did so many girls wear rubber boots????

Choir Practice

Well, tonight Tanner and I participated in our first choir practice. It's not easy getting everyone fed, diapered, dressed and out the door by 6:45. And it is even harder when you finally arrive at the church and are preparing to drop the kids off at the nursery so that they can play games, toys, watch movies and eat cupcakes AND that still isn't enough to distract them, so you end up with two crying kids on your hands while you're trying to not be late for choir practice.

It's moments like these that we have to pause and revel in the absolute neediness of our kids. I keep reminding myself that we only come this way once, and that it is all over way too soon, and in just a couple of years, my girls will be rolling their eyes and thinking PLEASE mom just go away!!!!

I almost gave up. I suggested that perhaps Tanner should go to practice, and I would just stay in the nursery with the kids, but he said, "With you, or no one." Sigh...sometimes I feel like I'm living in a Georgette Heyer romance novel, shades of The Nonesuch...so, we spent about 15 minutes watching the kids play, I fed Georgie and when everyone seemed distracted, we slipped out the door and headed for the choir room.

What a choir. It's been a long time since I've sung with a choir of more than 30 voices. I had forgotten how much fun it is. What makes it even better is the noticeable tenor and basso sections. I tend to think that there is an equal ratio of men to women in this choir of about 100 voices. I opted for second soprano since it's been a while since the last time I've done any singing, and I wasn't too sure if I could sing up in the rafters without a serious warm up. Anyway, I've always prefered the second soprano line, but have only had rare opportunities to sing it. Usually I hover between the sopranos and altos, but this choir is big enough to merit a true second soprano line. Tanner is in the baritone section, and there are actually other baritones.

Our vocal training has stood us in good stead, but I have to remember to breathe. I keep forgetting to take a breath at the end of phrases, so that when I hit a whole note, I end up petering out on the last beat. I hope that once the sight reading kicks into high gear, it will become second nature again.

I also found out that the woman who heads up the orchestra, also sings in the choir as an alto, so I think everything will work out fine as I juggle orchestra and choir.

It's a cappuccino morning

Rich, creamy skies, warm air, open windows and curtains blowing in the breeze, that is what creates a morning like today. No shot of espresso for me this morning. It would be just too shocking for the system and would put me out of sinc with the rest of the population.

The kids can feel the sultry sensation, too. They want to wander around the house in their pj's, and if I weren't so determined to potty train Reagan, I would probably let them. They had to settle for a warm shower and the fuzzy feelings created by Johnson and Johnson's Baby Wash.

The only one of us unaffected by the weather seems to be Georgianna. She is doing her very best to figure out this thing called crawling, and she's working on it with gusto. I live in daily expectation of finding her stuck underneath a table. She doesn't even sit up yet, but she can get onto all fours and scoot herself forward a couple of inches, and I have to be careful about what I leave on the floor. She'll get into it. Period. Example: diaper wipes underneath the couch. For some reason that package is just absolutely fascinating to chew. She loves the crinkly, crunchy sound of the plastic moving between her fingers. So, now I'm on plastic patrol.

Tanner is trying to find excuses for not going outside to work on the bathroom wall, like calling Lucas at 10:30 am. That doesn't make sense to me since I'm pretty certain he won't be awake for another hour or more. I don't think Tanner is being lazy; it's the sound of something chewing on the pipes underneath the house that bothers him. Oh, dear, now that sounds like he's cowardly, but if you had seen the size of some of the rodents here, you'd be apprehensive, too.

Kate's Pictures

Hot 'n' muggy!

Yesterday convinced us that we needed to fix the windowscreens. March 7th - we ran the AC all day, and 1/2 the night because we couldn't open any windows since all of the screens have wholes in them. Whew, it was hot! And today is little better. Both Reggie and Kate are in tanks and shorts AND they're sweating. I'm making sure that they are drinking plenty of fluids, and I've learned how to repair windowscreens!

I'm quite a dandy at it now. I have plenty of work to do. I fixed the kitchen screen yesterday and today I fixed the screens in the front windows of the house. I just finished about 1/2 an hour ago, and with the fans going, the house is cooling down nicely. Hopefully, I won't have to run the AC today.

I thought you all might be interested to know that the pictures are courtesy of Kate. I gave her the camera today and just let her take pictures and in the next post, I'll add some of the pics she took of Reagan and Georgie.

Well, we had to pull apart an entire wall this weekend. The exterior siding of the bathroom wall was all rotted away, so we had to do some serious demolition work. Hopefully, Tanner and I will be able to fix some of the framing, and then get the wall sealed up again before the end of the week.

After that, I think we will begin residing the house. We know it will go slowly because we plan to reside a small section at a time and then pause whenever we reach a window so that we can replace it and then continue siding. It's not as efficient, let's say as replacing all of the windows, but we're heading into Texas spring and we've been warned quite a few times to remember to keep the house sealed up while we're working on it, or we'll have hornets and red wasps trying to make their homes inside the house.

Along a similar line, we were happy to discover that the HUGE, MAMMOTH, 4INCH cockroaches are not normally found here in Texas. We read that the largest a cockroach usually gets here is about 1-2 inches, and the most commonly found ones are even smaller than that. I guess this house had been unoccupied for so long that the mamma roaches were able to grow to ridiculously large sizes. I feel much better about that issue.

Unfortunately, we saw a red-wasp that looked to be almost 6 inches long, head to tail. Yes, 6 inches. Tanner tried to get a picture of it on his camera, but wasn't able to. Most of the red wasps I've seen have only been slightly larger than a normal wasp, but this one was gargantuan. We discovered geckos living under the siding of the girls' room. Kate thinks that they are cute. Reagan lives in dread of the "ouchy" bugs ever since she stepped into a fire ants nest. We've sprinkled fire ant poison all over the backyard and found 4 nests. So, the girls have been confined to the house for the past week unless they play on the patio right outside our door.

Tanner and I are getting ready to CLEP History I. We're just drilling each other on things like: what does Article IV of the Constitution say? or which ammendment secures the freedom of assmebly? Hopefully, we'll be able to take the test either right before or right after spring break, and then it's on to studying History II.

The Joys of Motherhood

Well, we are having great success with Reagan's potty training. Today, she only had one accident, and that occured just a few moments ago. She was very sad that she went pee-pee in her panty, so she said that she would try to go potty anyway. I shrugged, and decided that it would be okay to let her sit on her potty for a while. I sat down to nurse Georgie and a few minutes later I heard Reagan get off her potty chair. She came over to where I was sitting and said, "Look Mommy, poo-poo." Then she opened her hand and dropped a piece of poo onto my lap.

I haven't stopped laughing. And, yes, she did get a prize for going potty on the toilet.

It's Official!

Well, we are officially Texans. At least our car is. I am an ardent admirer of the efficiency of the Texan government, but even I have to admit that their car registration/licensing process is at best primitive.

The first step in the process is to transfer your auto insurance policy so that your insurance is registered as being in the state of Texas. The second step is to have an emissions test by one of the many private companies that offer the service. There is a nominal fee ($15) for this service. The third step is to go down to the county tax office and pay your new residents tax ($90), the license plate fee ($27), a title transfer fee, and a couple of other state mandated fees (total bill: $176). The fourth and last step is to find the Department of Public Safety office and take a vision test and basic driving test. At which point I assume they will give you a Texas license to drive after you can prove that you are indeed a US citizen and a Texas resident. On the plus side, I think it's a great innovation that your tags are placed in the windshield, so stolen plates aren't a problem.

We're still working on the fourth and final phase of the process. The emissions process only took 15 minutes, but the line to transfer title and get the plates took almost 2 hours. Since we have to take all 3 kids with us wherever we go (no free babysitting here), we're only good for one government regulated line. So, hopefully next week we'll be able to finish this up and get our drivers licenses. I'm a little sad about that, cuz I have the best ODL number ever. At least I don't have to ever change my social security number; I like that one, too.

She did it!

A lot of you know that Kate has been pining for a bicycle for I don't know how long. We kept putting her off, saying things like, when we move we'll talk about it, or we can't get it now because then we'd have to ship it. So, when we touched down in Texas, it was one of the first topics that she broached.

We decided that this would be a great time to teach her about savings. We'd already been giving her monetary rewards for doing tasks with a cheerful demeanor, and she had been able to buy Polly Pockets and princess crowns and shoes, things like that. Little tiny toys for maybe 2 or 3 dollars. But a bike would cost at least $40 (I eventually priced it out and with tax it came to $46). So, I explained to her what it would take for her to save up her money. Not only did she have to save up $46, but she would also have to take into account 10% in long term savings and 10% tithe. I have to admit she was pretty despondent when she thought of all the dimes she would have to save.

On the bright side, she knew that she had almost $10 in her piggy bank, so she started working with gusto, and every time we went to Target or Walmart she would beg to go look at the bikes. She was soooo happy when a few people sent her money for her birthday. Five dollars here, ten dollars there and she was up to $37 by the middle of February. By then, I was a little concerned that maybe she would grow weary in well doing because 2 months of working is a lot for a barely 5 year old to handle. Luckily, her Tutu found out that Kate had been practicing her violin very faithfully, so they struck a bargain. If Kate made a video of her playing the violin, Tutu would send her 5 whole dollars.

If you've ever seen a very excited Kate, you can imagine the dancing and hopping and jumping that occured with this announcement. So, Kate spent a couple of days practicing and refining her skills, made the video and emailed it to her Tutu. The VERY next day, a card came in the mail with Katie's name on it, and imagine Kate's ecstasy when she discovered not just $5 but $10 in the card.

Now, she KNEW she could buy her bike. She started to cry. So, here she is the very proud owner of a brand new bike.

Portland is #1

Yes, Portland is number 1. It outranked all other cities of the United States. It was found to be the #1 leader in depression. Yup. The other cities that ranked high were St. Louis, Detroit, Nashville and Atlanta. Not a single city in Texas made the list and there are some pretty huge cities here.

The Cat Under the House

So, we now have a friendly tom cat under our house. Yes, we really need to get the flashing up and taken care of this week. We're hoping to go to Home Depot or Lowes to pick it up tonight so that we can work on it after Tanner gets off of work on Thursday and Friday.

We're finding it difficult to determine what to do next. We still have one window that is boarded up, but we're thinking of taking that window out and just siding over everything. Since the house has 17 windows, I think it might be best to actually get rid of a few of them. So, if we don't replace that window, then we have to frame in a wall. So, do we do that next, or do we try to side the bathroom wall, or do finish siding the back of the house, or do we work on the roof , or do we finish siding the wall with the electrical panel? And if we do side, how do we get the siding here? It won't fit in the car, so it means renting a truck. If we rent a truck, we would want to buy ALL of the siding for the house. So, if we buy all of the siding for the house, where do we store it? We still haven't finished the shed, so the siding will have to go IN the house. See the dilemna we face? Lots of logisitics to work out.

I think we've finally settled on getting the exterior of the house sealed. Not necessarily sided and looking pretty, but sealed, so that rodents and cats can't live under or in the walls. After that we'll have to figure out whether we build a shed or reside the rest of the house or install the rest of the AC units or replace the rest of the windows so that the windows can be moved OUT of the back room...hehehe! I love it that life is so interesting and really not boring.

Another warm day in Texas

We are so enjoying the weather. I know most people living here must think that we are crazy. We're always outside playing, riding bikes, walking, going to the park, even trying to figure out how to barbeque. All of the locals seem to spend their time hunkered down inside of their houses as they wait out the cold months of February and March.

I mean, the weather is absolutely gorgeous right now. Usually there is a light wind and the sun is out. Average temperature is about 70. Now, to a Portlander like me, it's obviously a GREAT, PHENOMENAL day to go walking. Especially since I have 2 grocery stores within a 1/2mile of my home. I mean, why drive, right? These stores are surrounded by apartments, housing developments and restaurants. There must be at least 20,000 people all within walking distance, it's a college town and it's a beautiful day.

So, I grabbed my over sized, double, jogging stroller that every Portlander has if they have at least one kid, tossed my shopping list, purse and diaper bag into the back, packed up the kids and headed for a light shopping trip. Kate got to man the shopping cart while I pushed the stroller. We bought milk, flour, yeast, sugar, apples, butter, cheese, lettuce, carrots, sweet potatoes, etc...

Now, here is where I had a culture check. Typically, when I walk to a store in Portland with my huge stroller, and I go through the check out line, no one asks me if they can help me out to my car. I mean, why would anyone take a stroller into a grocery store unless they walked, right? Well, the courtesy clerk asked if he could help me with my groceries, and I politely declined. He was rather insistent because he noticed that I was juggling 3 kids, a stroller and a shopping cart. So, I gently explained to him that I had walked, and that the groceries were going into my stroller. It seemed to me that everyone in line, the cashier, the clerk and the lines to the right and left of me all became strangely quiet as they stared at this freakish accident of nature -- a mom with 3 kids was not an anomaly, but WALKING, in THIS weather!