This morning I woke up to fair weather and the promise of sunny, spring-like conditions.  I packed the kids off to school with daddy and proceeded to get ready for the day.  I decided to wait on applying makeup since I was going to walk the 1.5 miles to work.  I had left my bike at work the night before, so walking was my only alternative.  Let's just say that it was good thing I wasn't wearing any mascara.

Why?  because it started to rain.  It was a good old fashion southern rainstorm.  The type that flashfloods and massive traffic pile-ups are made of.  The type that remind you that you do live on the Gulf of Mexico and hurricanes are a fact of life.  I shuffled my very wet and miserable way to work before realizing (after I had been walking for about 10 minutes) that I had left my phone at home.  Let's just say that I was a very wet bookkeeper by the time I toddled in to work.  Luckily, the rain is rarely cold and the humidity keeps the wind from chilling the skin.

At least my rain gear was at the office, so I can hope for a comfortable ride home tonight.

So, I'm sitting here at work, much drier than I was this morning and thinking of all the crazy things that we did this past week.

Kate celebrated her 9th birthday.  I can not believe my baby has been with me for 9 years.  I remember being 9 and loving trees and reading.  I would often combine both of them by climbing a tree while clutching a book and then sitting a big branch while ants crawled alongside.  I was lucky because my best friend loved books, too,  not so much the trees.  When we played together it was to climb a tree and read.

Tanner wasn't able to attend Kate's birthday party because he had a lot of homework to do.  As a matter of fact he spent Saturday morning with the kids and then disappeared for the weekend.  He did go to church with us, but left right after the service ended.  I sigh a little.  Even though I knew this semester was going to be hard it is still difficult to accept that this is only the third week of this semester, and he has already pulled three all-nighters.  I'm starting to think I'm lucky if I wake up in the morning and find him fully clothed and sleeping on top of all the covers.

He still makes time for my running schedule which is why he stayed home Saturday morning.  I ran a 5k in Huntsville, Texas at Sam Houston Univerity about 45 minutes north of Houston.  It's a hilly part of Texas that I've never visited and proves that Texas is not a flat wasteland.  My legs are still protesting.  He is also going to take time out next Saturday to go to Houston.  I've got a color-run scheduled and maybe we'll take a little mini-break and go to the zoo afterwards.  Even if it's raining at least it will be warm.

Another Semester Starts!

And we're off to a roaring start this semester.  Tanner is taking 15 credit hours which include Physical Chemistry (referred to as p-chem), Plant Design (including a trip to Doha, Quatar), Safety Engineering, Unit Ops and Bio-Engineering.  Yuk.  I don't even know what some of those terms mean.  It looks like it's going to be a full 18 weeks, and I'm fully expecting my husband to drop off the radar and occasionally resurface for food and once in a while some sleep.

Speaking of food and sleep...we managed to put together over 70 meals last weekend.  I still have about 30 to go in order to have all of our dinners covered for the semester, but it was certainly nice to have such a large chunk taken care of.  We made teriyaki, Thai peanut, barbecue and Italian seasoned chicken, as well as twenty trays of macaroni and cheese.  Oh, just writing about it makes me hungry!

Texan weather, as always, is super sporadic.  We had a high of 75F yesterday, and today it 32F in the morning.  I tried to go running before work, but only made it 1/2 a mile before turning around and running back home. I was too cold, and I lack a lot of the cold weather gear that most Oregonians take for granted: like parka's or ear-warmers or sock-hats.  Of course, I love the crisp cool mornings, they are a welcome relief after the blistering hot summer, but the huge swings in temperature are difficult to manage.

Kate and Reagan are forging ahead with school and Girl Scouts.  We start the cookie selling season on Wednesday, so if you want some...I expect a visit between now and February 22nd.  Those girls make me so proud.  They are both known for their academic excellence, but even better, the teachers love their attitudes.  I am always super delighted to hear the great reports about their behavior and the trust that their teachers have for them.  As always, we continually pray for their saftey and their walk before God.

Most of you heard about Kate's adventures with driving...if you haven't, that might be a good reason to say hello to me.  Reagan emphatically declares that she will NEVER do something like that which only serves to make me apprehensive about the things that she WILL do.

Of course, Georgianna is proving to be her usual adorable self with lots of cuddles and snuggles and still very short hair.  I keep wondering if it will every grow back.  She is a girly-girl with a tough streak, something I find quite common int Texas.  She has the strongest Southern accent out of all the girls, and every once in a while I try to correct it, but truthfully, it is so cute, I usually let it slide.  My favorite phrase?  "Mamma, when (please imagine the drawl on that word) are we goin' to Suhndeh Schooo-el?"

If the kids are busy, it means I've been staying busy.  I'm working on my first 10k in a couple of weeks, being a scout leader, working full time, teaching violin 4 days a week in the evenings, organizing birthday parties (which thankfully are non-existent after the 27th) and trying to keep the housework under control.  I consider it all in the line of duty with copious amounts of coffee.