A cool morning beckoned us to the blueberry patch, so we all piled into the van early on Saturday morning and drove to Caldwell to visit Kingsbury Farms.  It's a smallish farm with about 100 blueberry bushes.  Not very popular with all the rough and tumble, but it had good picking, good prices and short distance all in its favor.  We picked about 20 pounds in about an hour and a half which was just perfect for the kids.  No pictures this time around.  We were a hot, sweaty sticky mess, but we had our treasure trove and were satisfied.

Then we did some much needed summer gear shopping.  Please don't worry, I will not afflict you with a list of all the things we had to get, but for the Grandmas and the Grandpas out there, we did get new life vests for the girls.  Of course the girls had a great time.  It was like they had been transported to Disneyland.  Kate actually stopped in the middle of putting her pink life jacket into the basket and said, "I can't believe you actually said yes!  I feel RICH!"  It was nice to be able to get the girls a few pretty things, especially since they give up their Daddy for a whole week.

Nap time, bath time and then Tanner whisked me away to a dinner and movie date.  I still think it is funny that I just love having dates like this.  I guess it's because I didn't get any of them before I got married, so these types of outings are a lot of fun.  We crack jokes and comment on all the previews just like a couple of high school kids sitting in the back of the theater.  We went for a run.  Yes, we are starting to run.  We'll see how long it lasts.  No promises.

Sunday was not so great.  We had a great start, a delayed breakfast, a delayed oil change, a delayed tire change and then a delayed arrival at home because we got into a car accident.  The classic three car sandwich with our car in the middle.  To top it all off, the car that rear ended us took off!  What is it about us and hit and run drivers?  So, now the air conditioning isn't working in the van, and I'm not sure how to get it fixed since we are both technically down to single car family status with a MUST drive to work.  We will see.  Tanner is thinking of trying to make a miracle happen on Friday.

It's difficult to say if any of us are injured.  I'm keeping a careful eye on the girls, of course, but I've had a hurt back since early December, so I'm not sure if the soreness I'm experiencing is increasing because of the accident or if it is just the normal increase of soreness before my next appointment.  Well, I am confident that God is still taking excellent care of us.  I will not be shaken.  But please, continue to hold us in your prayers.  As we move closer to reaching our goals, we are certain to be tested.

Many of you might not know the chief reason we moved.  Tanner and I were continually frustrated that no matter how hard he worked, we could never get to the point where we could effectively contribute to missions.  We were able to give one time gifts, but were unable to make commitments to help fund people overseas.  We prayed a long time about it and felt God direct us to go to college, to seek a degree that would provide for our needs and to spend a period of time learning to live within those needs and in faith so that we would know the difference between a need and a want.  We believe that through all of this we will be able to have a great impact on missionaries around the world.  Our commitment to this endeavor has not wavered.  Even with Tanner's internship, after a great deal of prayer, we decided to send a small portion of the money that he makes to fund a missionary in Africa.

Believe it or not, we wired funds last night, and this morning the accident happened.  Suddenly, we're struggling with worrying about how much this will cost or that will cost, and I confess, tempted to try to hold on to the "extra" that God gave us in order to make sure that we are comfortable.  I am comforted to know that not once did either of us suggest this.  

And here is the amazing part of our story.  After the accident, the hood couldn't be opened on the van, so it looked like there would be body work to be done.  I had to take Kate to her camp orientation, and then dinner had to be made.  Things didn't settle down till after 5:00, and then we discussed which car Tanner should take.  He then remembered that the license plate had fallen off the van, so he went back to the accident site, which was actually near Kolache Rolfs (aka Kate's favorite breakfast stop in the ENTIRE world).  When he came back with the plate which miraculously was still there, he pushed the bumper, heard something click, and voila! the hood was fixed and it will now open.  Of course there is still some damage, that sort of thing doesn't always get fixed in miracles, but it looks like the van will be okay.  We still have to figure out how to get the A.C. fixed, but that's something that might only take a day rather than a week to repair.  ahWhoop!  (BTW, that's the Aggie yell for Juniors).

So, we count our blessings.  All of you are among them, and we are truly touched and blessed by your prayers.

Happiness is...

Storm clouds rolled in during the night, so we woke up to gray, looming clouds.  Of course, they didn't really effect the temperature, so it felt like a humid tropical night except the day was just beginning.  I love this type of weather when my skin just soaks up all of the moisture and revels in the fact that wind and sun aren't drying out its surface.  It's during this time of year that chapped lips, runny noses and fuzzy socks are put away for the year and sunscreen, golden skin and beach towels become the new normal. Weather in the Brazos Valley can change on a dime, so after a furious down pour complete with claps of lightning and rolls of thunder, the sun asserted it's power and the clouds rumbled away.  Blue skies smiled down on us, and the rain became a swift, distant memory.

Hmm...just had to go over the sentence about three times to fix all of the grammar.  I'm still not convinced that I got it right.  Oh, well...that's why I'm not an editor.

I treated myself to a solitary lunch in a corner of Barnes and Noble and finished reading,  Journey to the Center of the Earth.  I was surprised that it was my first Jules Verne that I had managed to read all the way through.  Considering that I like reading H.G. Wells and cult-sci-fi like Ender's Game, this is truly remarkable. I guess I'll have to remedy that a little more thoroughly.

Reagan had her very first dance lesson today.  We decided that it was time she got to do some extra-curricular activities.  I think by the time Kate was that age, she had already had soccer lessons, ice skating lessons, voice lessons, dance lessons and Chinese lessons.  Oh, and we'd tried violin lessons, but that didn't work out so well.    I'm pretty sure these lessons are way over due.

Reagan was absolutely ecstatic when I picked her up from dance.  She talked about Sashay's and leaps and showed me all of the great stretches that she had learned.  She was radiant.  I think that's what I like best about her.  Nothing is ever just a normal happening.  Even when you ask her about her day...her eyebrows go up, her eyes look off to the right and she gushes, "It was amazing, Mom!  We went outside, and I went down the slide!"  Her head will nodded up and down vigorously.  "AND I went UP the slide, too!  It was sooo kewl!"  And yes, she says "kewl"  gotta get that southern accent in there somehow!

After lessons I took the girls to Red Mango for frozen yogurt, are as Georgianna calls it, "ice cream factory!"  They had rock candies, gummy worms, those red, squishy balls that spurt juice in your mouth when you chomp on them and Mochi for toppings.  I think Mom was the hero for about 1/2 an hour or at least until we got home and I made them put their shoes away!

This week has been a little tougher without Tanner.  The girls aren't weepy anymore, but I can tell that they're just a bit frustrated that Daddy isn't here.  They fight more and seem to be little short tempered with each other.  Georgi just can't understand why Daddy won't pick her up when he calls, and of course it's hard for them to "share" the skype time, so they squabble over that as well.

On the other hand, they pulled together today and vacuumed the  house, dusted, swept, mopped, did a load of laundry and cleaned the kitchen while I was at work!  Amazing little girls.  I think I might read them the story of Little Women because that's what they are right now.

We made it through the pinch period!  Tanner will be able to drive home to visit us for the weekend.  We are very thankful and glad that God used this time to show us how to live humbly and to trust Him.  It enlarges our hearts and teaches us compassion for those in even greater need.  He is even faithful to show us how to help others during our own time of need, so that we aren't consumed with self-pity.  He surrounds us with the beauty of His creation, the peace of His power and the joy of His love.

Long days and nights

Tuesdays are long days for our little family.  I start work at 8:00am, finish at 5:00pm, start teaching at 5:30, finish at 8:00pm.  The girls are showing amazing fortitude on days like this.  They keep the front room picked up, wash the dishes, sweep the floors and generally keep the squabbling down until the last student leaves.

I try to treat them with some fun mommy time right before bedtime.  Sometimes we watch corny musicals while munching chocolate chip cookies.  Sometimes we skype with Tutu or with Daddy.  Sometimes we karaoke at the top of our lungs.  Whatever we do, it's fun and keeps them going for the next day.

Things are cooling off a bit here.  We're suppose to be in the low 80's for the weekend.  I'm thinking...blueberry picking time...or maybe blackberry picking!  If we go, pictures, pictures, pictures!

saying goodbye, again.

Even though it is hard to say goodbye for a whole week, I am glad that it is only for a week.  Today, I think of all the wives and mothers and children that have to say goodbye to their soldiers for months, years and sometimes for a lifetime.  It makes my goodbye a little less bittersweet.

After such a tough couple of years, this internship is such a welcome break.  Is it odd that we find the goodbyes, long weeks and short weekends far less stressful on our family than a semester at school?  Tanner remarked that he has seen his family far more in the last week than he would during a month of school, and I agree.  We've had time to play cards with the girls, go to the park, take walks and splash in the pool.  We've had time to do projects around the house together rather than one person doing part, leaving it to go to work or to study, and then the other person picking it up and finishing it (if we were that lucky).  It feels so strange to have the time to watch a movie together after the kids are put to bed or to have a cup of coffee with each other.  There actually came a point this weekend where we didn't really feel the need to grab a few minutes of alone time.

I hadn't realized what a hardship school has been until this last week.  We're so use to an almost overwhelming work load.  Tanner mentioned it this afternoon before leaving that if we'd known just how hard the number three engineering school in the nation was gonna be, we might have been too scared to try.  Like the song Garth Brooks sings (I'm sorry for the country reference, peeps, but I am in Texas), "I'm glad I didn't know the way it all would end, the way it all would go...I would have missed the dance."  I guess if you're a school and you're competing with MIT (number 1) and Sanford (number 2), you've gotta have a tough curriculum, but Tanner has been talking to other interns this last week, and he has realized just how much more challenging the curriculum is at A&M than at other schools.

One story he had from work was from a safety meeting.  The instructor was explaining some material, and both Tanner and another school-mate from Texas A&M both knew the answers to almost every question while interns from other schools had absolutely know idea what was being discussed.  The instructor actually went so far as to say that he "loved it when we get interns from A&M.  No training needed."

Not that we are on the homestretch for school.  Tanner still has to make it through materials and kinetics which are two major hurdles for many engineers.  We've heard that a lot of students save kinetics for the last semester, after they've received their job offers so that they only have to make a "C".  All I can do is shudder.  I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to that course, and I don't even have to take it!

So, how are the girls doing?  Well, I numbed the parting of Daddy with movie night and chocolate chip cookie baking time.  That seemed to do the trick.  My goal is to give them little distractions even though I know that their hearts are sad.  They're looking forward to their "babysitter" coming tomorrow, and then there is choir on Wednesday, the pool on Thursday and Friday, and then hopefully, Daddy will come home! I say hopefully because we're not sure that his paycheck will come in time for him to get gas!  I told him if that happened then I would drive the girls down Friday evening.  I'm trying not to because we have to be back Sunday afternoon for a Girl Scout meeting which is mandatory for Kate to attend camp the following week.  It would mean a shortened visit, but a short visit is better than no visit.  We'll see how it goes, I guess.

brrrrr...it's cold!

For all my friends in the lovely, lush, green valley called the Willamette, I want to warn you that my children would never survive a summer there.  I think our lowest temperature this week has been 82, and that's during the coldest part of night.  Summer is creeping steadily closer, and I can feel the anxious anticipation for the days when the air conditioner is never turned off and popsicles melt if you are foolish enough to think that you can transport them safely home in the middle of the afternoon.

Last fall when popsicles went on sale I bought over 40 boxes or about 480 popsicles.  I am down to my last 2 boxes and summer hasn't even officially started.  But I digress from the main point of this post.

We decided to have a weekend of swimming with the girls.  We wanted to make sure that they were thoroughly reacquainted with the concept of pools and water and life jackets, so at around 6:00pm on Friday we took them to the pool.  (I like to make our motives sound so unselfish, but the real reason for going was because I could barely walk and couldn't stand up straight, and we thought some weightless floating in water would do my back a lot of good.  We were right.)  It was a balmy night: about 86F.  Perfect weather with the sun finally beginning it's evening descent where the rays aren't so harsh and the risk of sunburn is negligible.

The girls splashed and played for about an hour.  They cavorted and floated and did all the things little girls should do at a pool.  And then...they began to shiver.  Yes, a unanimous cry of, "It's cold!" erupted in girlish wails as we hurriedly wrapped them in towels and dried them off.  I felt guilty for making them go into the pool on such a cool evening.  We rushed them into the car and closed the doors so that the stuffy heat could warm them up.  Then as we pulled out of the parking lot, I glanced at the thermometer on the building, thinking that the temperature must have dropped drastically.  It was 85F.

My daughters would not be able to survive a summer in Portland.  What would they do on those lovely 76 degree days with a light wind that are considered "perfect" days?  Would they stare in horror, as I remember doing when I was a child fresh from Hawaii, at the pale skinned people walking around in shorts when it was a mere 70 degrees out?  Would they wonder in mute confusion at the crazy people wearing socks, birkenstocks and sweatshirts?  What about the fact that nobody seems to own a decent umbrella?

I realized, this weekend, that my daughters have no point of reference for the crazy, uniqueness that is Oregon. They will grow up and hear stories about how people dress in the Northwest and give nervous chuckles like all the other Texans do.  They won't yearn for spring skiing wearing only a t-shirt and light weight pants.  They won't know what it is like to go camping in the rain.  They won't understand the difference between a drizzle and a shower.  They'll wonder at the weird quirks in their parents: our penchant for "walking EVERYWHERE", our obsession with bikes and helmets, and our absolute refusal to plant blackberries.  

I wonder what their cousins will think as time goes by and the girls develop even more southern tendencies.  Already my girls say, "yes, ma'am" and "yes, sir".  They know to stand up straight and look their elders in the eye.  They know how to knock a boy down if he gets too rough.  And they dream of having pink cowboy boots, a ranch with at least 3 cows, chickens and sheep.  They have difficulties learning some words, and I've heard Georgianna actually figure out how to say the word with a drawl first and then correct it to match my speech second.  It really comes out in the way she says, "school."  It sounds like "skewel".  It's the same for the words tool, cool and good.

I guess only time will tell.  Until then, we'll fill it up with good times and good fun.

Daddy came driving home last night, hurrah! hurrah!

We made it through another long day without Daddy.  Kate had a party at school.  Georgi and Reagan fell back asleep after their early morning.  The house was actually clean when I got home.  Dinner was partly made.  I felt super lucky.  Plus, Tanner was coming home.  They gave him a 4 day weekend.  Not that we're going to do anything remarkable this weekend.  We're still cash strapped, college students, but it's great to have him home.

We didn't tell the girls that he would be coming home early.  They had cans of cat food that they were using to count the days until Daddy came home and they had TWO left.  I knew Tanner was about 15 minutes from home, so I had them busy doing all sorts of crazy stuff: cleaning the kitchen, vaccuming (even though it had already bee done), sweeping floors.  I didn't want them to hear the car pull into the driveway.  Kate was in the kitchen helping Georgi with the broom when she heard a jiggle on the front door handle.  She glanced up.  Saw Daddy, went back to sweeping.  Then her eyes widened and she said, "Daddy?"  She took a second glance and shouted, "Daddy!  It's Daddy!"  Reagan and Georgi came running into the room and Daddy experienced full body tackles from three girls.

Ah, the delights of daughters with daddy.

And it goes, "Boom!"

In the dark hours of the morning, I groped around for sweats and a t-shirt.  I dressed as silently as possible hoping to give the wee-people a bit more sleep before I rousted them out of bed.  I ran a hairbrush through my hair and snapped it back into a low ponytail.  Brush teeth.  Splash cold water.  Blink.  I finally felt awake.  I woke Kate up first and then Reagan slid out of bed.  Really, she did.  She has slide attached to her bunk, so she slid out of bed.  They both eagerly grabbed blankets, shoes and socks and then huddled near the front door as I got Georgianna out of bed.

Georgi does not like to wake up.  Her usual mode of operation is to fling one arm over so that she rolls on to her tummy, eyes still closed.  Then she fling the other until she has completely rolled out of bed, but managed to not have to wake up.  She ends up lying half on and half off the bed, arms stretched out.  She'll stay that way, too, until you pick her up and carry her to wherever her waiting attire is.

As we opened the front door and loaded into the car, Jonathan stumbled to the front door.  "Where are you going?" he asked in obvious confusion.  "Um it's Thursday," I responded.  He nodded and said, "Oh, yeah," as if I had just clearly explained the matter.  30 seconds later he was hopping into the car with one shoe still in his hand.  The gray of dawn still hadn't touched the sky, but we were up and ready to go.

Those of you who have visited know that Starbucks is just a short hop from our house.  I grabbed a spot and backed the car into it.  Then we all clambered out and made our sleepy way into the store.  A cappuccino, greek yogurt, lemon pound cake, chocolate cake and bacon/gouda sandwich later and we strolled out to the sidewalk running along Texas Ave.  We faced north and waited.  Dawn arrived and we still waited.  More people kept pulling into the parking lot and joined us on the sidewalk.  The white light of morning finally revealed to our eyes the thing we had been searching for -- a gutted out tower about a mile away.

We could have gotten closer, but I didn't want to risk the children.

Firefighters joined us.  Policemen stood in watchful silence on the other side of the street.  A two-way radio crackled, "Two minutes."  People got out their cameras and cell phones.  An eerie silence fell across the thousands of people lining the street.  It was broken by another crackle, "Ten seconds."

And then, a puff of gray smoke shot out of the side of the tower and the magnificent structure began to crumble.  A sound like thunder reverberated across the city as the structure collapsed in on itself and toppled like a jenga tower.  Then we all clambered back into the car and went home.