Badda bing! January is almost over?

Huh? What's up with that? I blinked and Christmas/New Year's zoomed by.

Reagan had a birthday party with all of her new friends. Pin the tail on the donkey and a Cakewalk, and of course the princess castle cake...I need to post pictures.

Oh, how I wish everyone in PDX could experience a Christmas with us, but with our luck, it would rain if anyone came for a visit. The last two years have shown us the sunny side of Christmas. Blue skies, white fluffy clouds, plenty of warmth for kids to dash outside in pajamas to play with a new toy. As the day progresses, everyone piles into cars to visit friends and eat Christmas dinner, and nothing, I mean nothing, tastes better than southern cornbread stuffing--even when you accidentally dump the brown sugar intended for the crispy crust of the sweet potato pie into it. It's not a New England Christmas, so, no one thinks about caroling. Instead, someone grabs a football and a game spills off the front porch and on to the street. Jugs of iced tea. Pecan pie. Brownies and Divinity.

It's awfully quiet in a college town on New Year's Eve. Oxymoronic, isn't it? Everyone is asleep by 10:00pm. Not a bang, boom, honk or hoot. No sirens. Everyone is thankful that the town can take a brief nap before the Spring Term arrives.

Then the mad rush to side the house before school started. The mad rush to pull out windows, build walls, insulate, build a new window, set a new door, get the house tight and ready. Time to adjust to getting up early every day. A quick dash to the zoo before Christmas break is over. A nice afternoon spent with Uncle Howell. Starting choir for the kids, dance for Kate, violin for Reagan. Practice some Chinese. Choir for mom and dad.

Deep breath and January is almost over, and time to put together a birthday party for Kate.

Non-creative, quick update...

Wow...I don't know what to say. I'm already exhausted and Christmas is nowhere near. We've got the lights up, the tree trimmed, the advent house stocked and restocked (Georgi still doesn't understand "no touch!"), the wreaths are set, the house is decorated, presents bought and cards written and ready to mail.

Tanner has taken two finals and has three to go. We are entering what Aggies fondly call, "dead" week. The longer we live here the more aware I become of all the crazy college traditions and how they really do hold sway over this town. We plan Christmas Parties and vacations around whatever the college is doing. It's just a little weird when you're use to being autonomous. I'll suggest a date and someone will invariably say, "You can't do it then, that's Dead Week" or "Fish Camp" or "Ring Dance" as if those terms actually hold meaning.

On a side note, Tanner just got confirmation that he is now officially being officially transfered into upper division Chemical Engineering. Which makes him a SOPHOMORE! Whoop! After 3 years of school, we've finally made it! This means that companies will now consider him for internships during the summer.

This weekend we had our Christmas Show at the rink, and we participated in the Christmas Parade. My back and neck are sore from waving. My mouth is sore from smiling. My feet are sore from standing and running. At least my big weekend is over, and now we've just got to get through finals. Then it's a two week break before Tanner starts the mini-mester.

We're praying about a job for me. We're hoping that I'll be able to support the family so that Tanner can quit his job and just focus on school. I've got two job offers with pro's and con's for each. We just want to know which one would be the best for our family.

Georgi Ice Skates!

Oh, the weather outside is DELIGHTFUL!

I do not need boots, long winter coats, gloves, hats, thick socks or snow pants. I do not hurry from my car, dodging rain or snow. I do not need the heaters turned on or a fire burning in the hearth. I do not have the wintery urge to curl up with a book and a cup of hot tea. I do not feel the need to stock up on butter, bread, crackers or soup. I do not curl my toes in dread before I open my front door.

I live in Texas. It's 73 degrees, and I am sitting with all the windows open after the sun has gone down basking in a light cool breeze. I am not shivering even though I am wearing shorts and a tank top. The kitchen window is open because I used the oven for dinner tonight, and we need to cool the house down. The girls wanted to go swimming this afternoon, but all the pools are closed for the season. Kate complained about wearing a uniform to school because they are sooooo hot! It is a polo with khaki pants. Short sleeved.

The air feels slightly damp, like the type of damp you get in Hawaii during the month of May. Nice and sloppy, it makes you feel like you must be on vacation. I've discovered that I actually enjoy grocery shopping on days like today because it doesn't feel like normal grocery shopping. I feel like I should be buying bottled juice, poptarts and T.V. dinners. Instead I walk out with a gallon of milk, apples, oranges, a bevy of vegetables and stuffing. Wait...oh, yes, it's November. I have to get ready for Thanksgiving, for Black Friday. But Black Friday is easy in Texas. Sixty-five at 4:00am just isn't that cold. I'll still bring some hot chocolate..salted.

Oh, rats!

Seriously. We're talking 4 rats or maybe 5 if you count the one that got away! One dark gray one was slaughtered by our heroic lamb names Annie. 2 white ones were whipped into heaven by traps. 1 fell from the attic to the floor somewhere in a wall and has made occupation of the back half of the house impossible. And the one that got away screamed for 5 minutes at around 3:30am, then dragged the trap to the hole they had made in our wall before freeing itself and scurrying away.

At least we found the hole. And plugged it.

If it isn't rats, it's mice. That's what we dealt with last month. 3 mice.

If it isn't mice it's cockroaches or crickets or fire ants. It's amazing how cool and calm I've become concerning pests. Pests that would have freaked me out 2 years ago are now just minor inconveniences.

Mmmmm...Autumn!

Do you know about those glorious days in Portland? The ones where there is a light breeze, the sun is gentle, white clouds scud across the skies and you feel like taking a walk on the Waterfront or going for a jaunt down Hawthorne -- those days that are so fleeting that you have to grab them when they come, quit work, rearrange schedules and take advantage of every golden moment...

We get those here in Texas. Except that we get about 3 months worth of them in the fall, and another 3 months in the spring. I've got to brag because everyone knows that everything is BIGGER in Texas. So, our golden days are bigger, longer, whatever you might want to call them, and because of them, we forgive the six weeks of unbearable heat that we suffer every summer.

Like today. A long yawn, and we were up at 8:00am, stretched our way to church and then back home via Target, Toys-R-Us and Starbucks. The girls curled up on the couch and read books until a sunbeam made them squint, and then it was shoes and a clamorous rush for the back door. Squeals of laughter followed their jaunt across the yard to play with the lamb and the slide and the swing. It made me wish that I didn't have lessons to teach and dinner to make.

Then one of those ideas came to mind that made the impossible, well, possible. We managed to stretch time so that a walk, a park, and a picnic dinner all fit into a very short hour and a half. All of that accompanied by soft breezes, laughter, running, skipping and talking. It prepped me for lessons, lessons, lessons. A few long goodbyes and it was time for wet, snuggly kisses of freshly laundered children and bedtime.

Yes, we have days like that. Days when a carnival is a tempting treat not a cold, miserable idea. Days that start out with a fresh, crisp breeze and finish like warm chocolate cake. Days where Popsicles melt in the mouth not in the hand. Yes, we have them, lots of them, and we enjoy every single one.

A FUN weekend, but, alas, no pictures!

This was a great weekend for our family. Tanner took Saturday off, and I had two off-site events to go to for AWIC. So, since I was planning to do them solo, we loaded the kids in the car and took 'em with us!

The first event was just down the street at Wolf Pen Creek, and it was called "Wienerfest". No, it wasn't a festival celebrating hot dogs and bratwurst. It celebrated those little wiener shaped dogs. The little tiny, short ones. They had a costume contest, races, best of the breed, etc... The girls were in dog heaven. They probably petted and stroked over a 100 dogs. They watched me hand out countless coupons while Tanner paraded around as Frostbite. Right next to us was a bounce house, so we were able to let them bounce to their hearts content while we schmoozed. I sent the girls home with Tanner around 1:00pm and I stayed a couple more hours handing out coupons and monitoring kids playing in the "snow".

Today, after church, I had another off-site event called Buddy Walk at the same park. It's a fundraiser for Down Syndrome Research/Awareness. This one was only a couple of hours long, so the girls managed to have lots of fun playing in the snow, going into yet another bounce house, playing with bubbles and stuff like that while Tanner and I did our thing.

I worried that it would be difficult to monitor the kids, but they all managed to stay where I told them to stay. Kate was Georgi's "buddy" so they stayed together most of the time. We had beautiful weather. It was cool in the morning, but quickly heated up to the low 80's, so it was easy to keep the kids hydrated and cool. Kate said that her favorite thing about this weekend was getting to be at work with Mommy. Reagan was just excited to get to go bouncing 2 days in a row. Georgi doesn't say much, but she slept soundly last night.