I was gearing up to shout, "It's spring! It's spring!" when a warm front rolled into the Brazos Valley and made me shout, "I refuse to turn on my air conditioner in March!" We were all hoping for more rain before the summer settled in the valley. The nights are cool, and I think I saw some clouds creeping in with the sunset, so maybe we will revert back to spring-like weather for the weekend.

Last year, it was so cold that we had an indoor Easter egg hunt. As of this afternoon, I am predicting a barbecue. Just so you know, the weather is one of the more popular topics in the south. In first place is football, followed by politics and then weather.

I realized how southernized we are becoming when I took the girls out for dinner and they asked if they could have "soda-pop". Not soda. Not pop. Soda-pop. They all wanted Dr. Pepper. Not root beer. Not orange Fanta. Dr. Pepper. That's the national drink down here. We have Dr. Pepper stadiums, Dr. Pepper ice rinks and Dr. Pepper art museums. Ridiculous, isn't it? On the topic of food, Frito-lay is the Big Daddy of them all. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there is a Frito-lay Opera House. They serve Frito pie at almost every gathering. Right along side your grits, gravy, biscuits and brisket. Wondering where the vegetables are? Pretty sure they're somewhere between the biscuits and brisket. Here, have a pickle. Do you want it frozen or deep fried?

Just a quick update on stuff happening down here. Tanner is slogging away through Chemical Engineering classes. He's mired down in Organic Chemistry and Physics 2. He'll be taking Differential Equations and Chemical Engineering in the summer.

Kate is getting ready for her dance recital. My mom and dad gave her dance lessons for her birthday. She loves every minute of it and gyrates all over the house now. She is doing amazingly well in school. She is reading chapter books. Her favorite series is Juny B. Jones. She surprised me by reading a beginner Chinese reading book. I think it is great that she is getting to excel in these areas.

Reagan and Georgianna started day-school this month so that I could work full time. Reagan loves going to school and comes home every day talking about all the "projects" and "toys" she got to play with. Georgi just gets excited. She doesn't like being dropped off at school, but she sings her ABC's to me when I get home from work, and proudly announces that everything in sight is "Yellow" and the sun and the moon are called "La Luna".

Work is fun. Sometimes exhausting, but I have a great time with my boss. She can't understand where this "wonder woman" came from, so I tell her I just had great parents.

On a side note, things are cheaper in Texas. Anyone who has every had to have a cat or dog fixed will appreciate that it cost us $50. Yup. I'm surprised I haven't convinced somebody to move here yet.

Of coffee (a.k.a. human bondage)

No, I am not making a claim to writing some great literary feat, but there is something about coffee or at least Starbucks that somehow manages to make a few million humans wholly inadequate without it. I'm only talking about coffee because Georgianna once again climbed the counter, grabbed my coffee tin and dumped ground coffee all over her bedroom. It smells like a coffee house in their room, and when I vacuum, I get a sudden urge to drink an espresso.

I didn't get my first cup of coffee until 4:30pm today. I decided to let Tanner sleep. I think espresso must stimulate some sort of creative part of my brain, because I couldn't think of anything interesting to do today with the kids. We took a walk to Kolache Rolf's for breakfast. It's their favorite breakfast place, and just in case you were wondering, "what is Kolache Rolf's?" I will take this time to say that we wondered that for almost a year.

Kolache, pronounced coal-ah-chee, is a Czech delicacy. I guess we have a large Czech population in the Brazos Valley since we have a Kolache festival every year. So, a kolache is a soft, fluffy bread filled with either jam or meat. The girls like both and a kolache only costs .89 and are preferred above McDonald's. I don't really care for kolaches, but getting them on the weekend is becoming a tradition in this family, and I don't care to be on the outside of any tradition, so I take them to Kolache Rolf's.

After breakfast, we walked home. Did I mention that it was cloudy and drizzling? Yup. It was also 72F, so it didn't really matter. As long as there isn't a storm, a little bit of water isn't going to stop us from taking a walk. Once we got home, the girls raced into the backyard to do a bit of digging and mudpie making, leaving me to try to come up with something else to do. So, I did pilates. Then I did yoga. Then I did laundry, cleaned the kitchen and made lunch.

My creative side just wouldn't kick into gear. I watched "Destry Rides Again" because I was feeling kinda nostalgic, and I remember watching it with my mom when I was little. I folded some clothes, picked up a few toys, read some email and wandered around the house a little aimlessly until I remembered that 2 year olds need a nap.

I fixed the screen door, played with our kitten, cleaned up muddy shoes and stuff like that. I kept trying to clear the cobwebs out of my head, but I gave up. I waited for Georgianna to wake up to signal me to wake Tanner up. They both tumbled out of bed at 4:30, and we managed to get all the kids ready and in the car before 5:00. A rare testament to the power of coffee. Starbucks never smelled so lovely. I drank two shots of espresso and then we all strolled to Hobby Lobby just to take a stroll. Did I tell you that by this time it was dark, cloudy and rainy? It still didn't matter because it was a balmy 72F. Suddenly, my creative juices kicked in and I let the girls pick out paint pots and paper and brushes. We drove home, made dinner and had a painting party. Splashes of rainbows, hearts, flowers and bushy trees swirled across their papers and strangely enough NOT onto the floor.

I'm hoping the awakening doesn't keep me up until the wee hours of the night. We will see, but that won't keep me from drinking some "joe" tomorrow morning.

What an interesting day yesterday was. You always know when there's not much "happy" news when someone labels something "interesting". Of course, it's not bad news, either. It's just...well, interesting.

It started out as a coolish sort of day, and perhaps that should have warned me because coolish means the girls can't go outside to play or maybe they won't go outside to play, so they are inside all day. After dropping Kate off at school we came home so that I could work. The girls quickly grew bored of playing in the back room, and I'm pretty sure that I should have clued into the fact that something was up when the dvd player was turned on, but I was busy.

When I finally did tune in, Georgi was running around without any clothes on. A quick search revealed a lovely little wet patch in the back room. Round 1 of cleaning and dressing Georgi. And then there was Round 2. And then Round 3. And then 3 cups of water spilled on the kitchen floor. And another dose of water in the dining room. And then a 1/2 filled cup of coffee drizzled about.

Like I said...it was interesting. So interesting that I showed the girls how to steam clean a carpet this evening.

It's a beautiful day on Paradise!

I know most of my family is going to object to the usage of the word in referring to anything other than Hawaii. I just can't help it. It was a lovely Sunday in paradise.

This morning rolled around and I woke up to two snuggly kisses from tiny little lips and a tight baby bear hug from two tiny arms. Georgi had crawled into bed sometime during the night. It was 7:00am and morning time! "Wake up, Mommy, it's light out."

I still didn't feel like the girls were over their sickness to take them to church, so I took them on a walk instead. Two little hands in each of mine lead me to the Kolache Factory where the girls picke out their favorite treats. Kate had blueberry, Reagan had apple, Georgi had peach. I had coffee. A slow stroll back home as we basked in the early morning sun, jackets unzipped, letting the fresh air ruffle our hair and blow away the last wisps of sleep.

Daddy didn't open his eyes until almost noon because we were so quiet when we got home. The girls played with their kitty, taught her how to chase her tail and giggled into their blankets. Laundry, mountains of laundry waited in ominous silence behind the bedroom door. Being sick for over a week meant that I had laundry. Tanner is good at starting the laundry and switching the laundry, but folding the laundry...like, I said, there were mountains. So, I made the girls fold it ALL while Tanner and I crept quietly out of the house to do 2 weeks worth of food shopping in an hour and a half.

We browsed the vegetable aisles, the cheese mound, the baskets of bread. Slowly piecing together a menu of dinners. Fresh garlic, cheese, spinach, ricotta and long thin lasagna noodles; white wine, garlic, cubed bread, swiss and gruyere cheeses; fresh mozzerella, basil, spring greens...we enjoyed our leisurely foray into the grocery store.

We flung the doors open wide and let the breeze ripple through the house. Long sunrays stretched across the carpet and played with bits of dust in the air. Yes, a beautiful day in our bit of Paradise.

Finally, the winter weather has rolled away, and we get our sun and blue skies back for the next week! I cannot believe I have lived so many years looking forward to sunshine June rather than complaining because I don't have sunshine in February.

Every person I know has been shaking their head in confusion. Sleet, hail, ice, snow...these are words that only exist on paper for most of us. They belong to the stuff of legend and lore. You know the stories, "When grandpa was a kid there was snow storm that shut down the town for 3 whole days..." It is shocking to have these stories jumping up and taking our lives by storm. The kids are morose: no day off of school on Good Friday. And Good Friday is usually sunny and warm, a day to play in the backyard or on the street. It's a guaranteed picnic day, lunch-with-mom-or-dad sort of day. Instead, it's a school day. No one gets to spend the afternoon dyeing eggs. It's just a normal day at school.

But, I guess legends have to be made and re-born every 30 years or people begin to forget what makes everything else special. It was a lot of fun watching 22 and under kids trying to drive in the snow. They would get stopped and a light and then the car wouldn't grab the asphalt, so of course they decided the best course of action was to step on the gas even more. We were tempted to set up lawn chairs and a beer stand on the corner and just watch the cars slide. We didn't because while everyone was dealing with winter weather, we were dealing with the flu.

I now understand the purpose of flu shots. It's to keep parents healthy enough to care of kids who get sick. It's taken us an entire week to finally put to bed the last fever. Everyone but Georgi is starting to eat again. This bug makes you disinterested in food for at least a week. A great incentive for weight loss, but really, I'd rather go on a 40 day fast.

We welcomed the sun this morning. For the first time we all felt like we had energy to take a walk, so we bundled everyone up and went for a walk. Starbucks, pet store, shoe store, Ross and then home.

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.