The Fair!

We decided that it was about time for us to become full fledged Texans and go to our first state fair. We got up early, just as the sun was coming up and hurried the girls into the car. I groaned because it was COLD. There were gray clouds covering the sun and cool, steady wind. I headed back into the house and grabbed some extra shirts just in case it didn't burn off. We were heading north and that probably meant things would be even colder.

It took us 3 1/2 hours to finally reach Dallas with only one stop for coffee and allergy medicine. The kids played games, talked, sang, painted and colored all the way there.

As you can see in the first picture, we were met with even more gray clouds, a stiff wind and even a sprinkling of rain. Temperature: 76F. Kate insisted on wearing her sunglasses and my new shirt. She thought she was pretty awesome, and I have to admit, she can pull it off!

Uncle Howell met us at the fair, and Reagan told him all of her favorite things as we munched on cheese pizza, chicken tenders and curly fries. I skipped the deep fried butter that the stands were offering and also the deep fried beer, deep fried Dr. Pepper and deep fried Coke. The clouds burned soon after noon, but it still wasn't warm enough for the jackets to come off. The girls alternated between curling up in the stroller with the blankets that I had brought and running in order to keep warm.

We decided to take a break, and the girls found these chairs to most useful! Georgie didn't know what to think about the ostrich, but I think the ostrich knew EXACTLY what to think about her.

Georgi's cupcake party

Here are the girls frosting away, away, away! As you can see, Georgi is just crumbling her cupcake. She hadn't discovered the wonders of frosting at that point!

Here she is after she opened her presents from Tutut, Utut and Auntie Emi. She had such a hard time choosing between her new shoes!

She decided to be a ham for the camera. She sat down on the couch, looked at me and said, "cheese".
This one shows her eyes. They are changing to hazel. I think that's the right name for the color. I wouldn't be surprised if the turned brown by the end of the year.

Georgi is two years old today, and boy can you tell that she has rounded the corner into toddler-hood. She is into everything. She discovered the wall sockets yesterday. She discovered the toilet flusher the day before. She discovered the toothpaste tube last night. We are constantly running around saying, "No, Georgi, no, no!" Even Reagan has remarked on it, saying, "Georgi can't touch anything. She is a No! No!"

Georgi is two years old today, and she threw her first temper tantrum. I was in Target (of course) to buy a new memory card. I told her to come, and she glared at me, folded her arms, stomped her foot and said, "No!" Ahem...my dear little child...don't you know what happens when little girls do something like that? Apparently not because she then proceeded to throw herself on the ground and cry. This is where I just love being in Texas because I fearlessly picked her up, gave her a swat on the rear end and very firmly told her, "Georgi, no fit." She blinked, nodded her head and quite crying. THE END!

For her birthday, I threw a cupcake party on Wednesday. We had a bunch of little kids over, and they frosted and decorated cupcakes. Georgi just grabbed her cupcake and ate it, licked the frosting out of her bowl and devoured any stray sprinkles or pieces of candy. I mean, who needs the cupcake to look pretty, right? It's the sugar and candy that count!

Georgi is two years old today, and when it comes to vocabulary she does not lack in skill. She opened her presents and said, "Oh, mommy, socks and shoes, they're beautiful." Just like that. Really. The next present was opened and she said, "Oh, a shirt." Then she spied a third present and said, "Another present. Yes, I want to open it. Here, Reagan, you hold this!" Of course there are times when she still babbles, especially when she is excited. She gets frustrated when she is trying to explain something to us and we can't understand what she is saying. She'll frown, squint her eyes and huff. Then she'll shake her head and say, "Never mind."

My baby is two and not a baby anymore. And I am looking forward to spending this next year watching her grow into a little girl. She's adventurous. She's fearless (unless she looks down). She's curious and strong. She won't take "no" for an answer (even if it means climbing a bookshelf to get what she wants). She's funny. She's generous. She's trusting and excitable. She's loving, cuddly, clingy at times. She's huggable, kissable and holdable. She's Georgi, and she's two today.

Everything in Full Swing

Our life has definitely picked up speed, and the trick is to keep our hands on the wheel without making any abrupt changes or else the whole thing will crack apart and various odds and ends will go flying, indiscriminantly through the air to land who knows where. Amazingly, we've made it through the first two weeks of the next 4 months of craziness, and I find myself in wonder because of the tenderness of God.

So many things have been gradually eased into place to make this phase of our life palatable, doable, workable and funable. Like my crazy, cooking-once-a-month plan. Started 2 1/2 years ago in PDX when I finally figured out what to do with all of those leftovers I kept having. It would be impossible for us to cook meals every day with Tanner going to school from 7am til 5pm Monday and Wednesday, and me working from 9am till 9pm Tuesday and Thursday. Or, my craze for plastic containers. Started 3 years ago in an effort to store blankets. Results seem to be that there's always a container for a toy. And, just our lifestyle in general. We'd rather go on a walk than go out to dinner. Started in Vancouver when we caught the biking/walking craze. Makes everything so much less expensive. It also makes it very easy for us to function as a one car family.

And every adjustment was made for the fun of it, not because we HAD to or we NEEDED to be economical. Or maybe we did, and we just didn't know it. Regardless, the transitions have been so smooth and easy. I often have people asking me, how can you handle it? or how can you be so chipper?

I really can't answer the question because I really don't know. How do I handle the fact that in the last six weeks we haven't seen temperatures under 100 degrees? How come I don't get homesick? How do I stay so positive?

I guess the answer is that I really don't have anything to complain about. Yes, finances are so tight that last week Georgie was the only one who got milk because we couldn't afford more, but starving is so much worse. Yes, having a front door that won't open anymore because the house shifted AGAIN and it probably won't get fixed until next summer, maybe, is tough, but sleeping under the stars is so much worse. Yes, it's so hot that the tar is melting on the road, but having a dirt road would be so much worse. I guess it's all in the way you look at it. I look at our life and can't believe how easy God has made it.

This week, things have cooled down quite a bit. I'm pretty sure it is the fault of the hurricane that's hitting the east coast. Our nights drop into the 70's and in the morning the air is cool and refreshing rather than stale and muggy. But, I don't want you to think that it stays that way. On the contrary, by the time 10:00am hits, we're back up into the 90's and ready for the splash pad.

Our typical Monday schedule is: up at 6:30am. Make lunches, get Kate ready, get Daddy ready, eat breakfast, pull two sleepy kids out of bed, drop off Daddy, drop off Kate. Relax until lunch. Pick up Daddy. Feed Daddy. Take kids outside so Daddy can sleep or do homework. Take Daddy to school again. Pick up Kate. Do homework. Daddy comes home. Do more homework. Eat dinner. Bath time. Sleep. Repeat for the rest of the week with the added caveat that Mommy goes to work for 12 hours at a whack. Yikes! Full swing and loving it!

First Day of School

Yes, it is that time already: the first day of school. I guess in Texas they start school early and end school early. Kate will be done with school by May 29th, so I don't mind that she starts at the end of August. It's kind of nice because we'll get into the swing of things before Tanner's school starts next week.

So, what is it like in our house on the first day of school?

The morning was ultra organized. All of Kate's lunches are made for the entire week, breakfast is made for the next two weeks, and since she wears a uniform, the clothes are picked out for the entire year! Kate popped out bed at 7:00am and unlike last year, knew exactly what to do. She brushed her hair and teeth. She sat down and ate breakfast. When she finished, I had laid out her uniform, so she changed her clothes, found her shoes and was ready to go by 7:20. I pulled out her lunch, her backpack and her school supplies. Tanner put everything into the car, and they headed out the door.

A strange quiet settled across the house. Georgie sat down and played with her dolls. Reagan snored in her bed. No fights broke out. No fussing. No whining. I put Georgie on my bed with her dolls and went back to sleep!

The rest of the day passed by just as uneventfully. The girls ate breakfast, they shared toys, they ate lunch, they dressed up as princesses and kissed each other, we went to the splash park, they giggled and laughed as they ran around the sprinklers, we picked up Kate, they pinched and kicked each other. The pinching, kicking and teasing continued until I put Kate into the bath. Then it stopped. It started up again when she got out, so I put Reagan in the bath. It stopped. She got out, and it started again, so we put them all to bed.

Maybe not so crazy

Well, I decided to not take any classes this term either. It's hard to be patient, but I really can't see how we will maintain any sense of family peace if both of us are working and going to school. I work more than just full time, since I also schedule violin lessons for after work. I tend to put in about 50 hours a week, and then if I add even part time school to that...well, you get the drift. How would I manage to ever see my kids? Well, I might manage it, but I think I would tend to consider them and annoyance rather than a blessing. If I need extra curricular activity, I think I will take ice skating lessons.

We had a hiccup in Tanner's school schedule as well. He was registered for classes on Monday and Wednesday when Blinn decided to cancel all of his classes. It was a scramble and a fight down to the last with quite a lot of prayer and learning to LEAVE it in God's hands, but we were able to get him back in to all of his classes except for physics. It is frustrating because now, he has to take the class on Tuesday and Thursday which means we have to find a babysitter for the girls, but we have learned to LEAVE it all in God's hands. On the plus side, all of that struggling opened up a possible scholarship for him, so we are in the process of applying and of course, praying and waiting.

On a kidlet note:

Georgie has learned how to jump. She is very proud and shouts, "Look at me! Look at me!" She still can't figure out that I am Mommy. She calls me Lovee and Daddi and Mommy-Daddy because when she means daddy, she says, "Tanner" or "Honey".

Reagan wants to go to school. I'm thinking that ice skating lessons in the afternoon might be in order or maybe piano.

Kate can't wait to start school except that she is concerned about her 1st grade teacher. "What if I don't like her?"

On a house note:

We finished the girls room. Well...almost finished. Still no baseboards or trim, but it is patched and painted and they have a lovely pink ceiling fan.

1/3 of our house has siding on it. I hope that it will get to 1/2 by the time school starts. Hope is a broad term though, so I think I will try to be happy with just my 1/3.