Life Here Series

January 5, 2015 - T Leave a comment

You know how people always say they get great ideas in these shower? Well today in the shower I was thinking about blogging about some routine daily things here that might give people a glimpse into daily life for us.

So here are some ideas I came up with to write about:

our house

grocery shopping

cooking

transportation

going to the doctor

getting mail

paying bills

eating out

church

neighbors

houses/apartments/buildings

parks/things to do for kids

Do you have any other ideas? Things you are curious about?

I will try to write about these from time to time and if you have any other ideas, leave those in the comments!

An actual current post

January 2, 2015 - T 1 Comment

Well sorry, after I ran out of all my saved up posts of summer pictures that I had prescheduled way out….I stopped posting for a while. I still want to show you pics from T’s first birthday and maybe Thanksgiving and some other events, but I thought I would write a quick note to say hello.

I have been sick for about a week and am finally starting to feel a little better. Last night I went to bed at 12 and took a little while to fall asleep due to the coughing, but not hours. And I think I woke once but wasn’t up too long, and then slept til 7:45! Hopefully a breakthrough! Yippee!

Needless to say, our New Year’s wasn’t very celebratory! I went to bed at 9 but laid there coughing til about 11:45, at which point I contemplated going ahead and getting up to say happy new year to my husband, who was still awake but sleeping in the guest room due to aforementioned coughing, but I was exhausted so I just stayed there and probably fell asleep about the time 2015 was entering our home.

Yesterday for New Year’s Day I really wanted to get out of the house. We picked some friends and went to the mall for lunch and a little shopping. I found a maternity sweater and some boots that I have wanted for years (the Ugg kind, although not that brand) on a very good sale. It wore us out. The kids took great naps. Then I made black eyed pea casserole and guacamole and we watched the Rose Parade online. Then we watched the Baylor game and we won’t even talk about that…

Today we were just home, but I managed to get a few things done like clean off my desk and clean out the fridge. About 7 pm we were sitting in E’s room while the kids played and got to talking about rearranging it, so we did! We love to do that! I like it a lot. Her room is an interesting shape and has an extra door and the window takes up a big wall space. We will have to change it up a little bit in a few months when T’s crib goes in there. He will be 19 months when the baby is born so I don’t think he will be ready for the bottom bunk of E’s bed. The crib will just have to be in there a while even though it will take up space, until I think he understands enough to stay in his bed! Or until he tries to climb out, which may happen first, as much as he likes to climb.

T is trying to walk some. He will go from person to person, but he goes so fast that he falls down a lot. He will be walking soon I bet. He gets really excited when he can walk a little bit. Of course, he is a very fast crawler so right now the easiest way for him to get somewhere is just to crawl. Sometimes he tries to crawl holding something big and ends up using one elbow. It is moments like that when I try to tell him that learning to walk will make that easier!

Random Summer Pics

December 15, 2014December 5, 2014 - T 1 Comment

Okay folks, you have made it through all the posts from the summer! This last one is just random funny pictures that I wanted to include but don’t get a whole post to themselves.

We checked out our storage unit one day. Found some treasures. Found some things we wondered why we kept.

T started crawling when he was 11 months old. This is the space in front of the townhouse we stayed in.

E discovered she likes jello while we were home this summer. She also likes Luby’s. Like her momma.

Cutie pie in leg warmers!

These two spent lots of quality time in the car together. E likes it better when he is right next to her. Isn’t this sweet of them holding hands?

I ate a ton of these this summer! Yum!

Sweet baby in a swing!

Doctor Visit

December 13, 2014December 5, 2014 - T Leave a comment

We snuck in a doctor visit to our old pediatrician while we were in the states. They got lots of shots for their one year and four year old checkups! Thank goodness Nena got to come and help! Suckers and stickers and Fruit Loops help too!

Celebrating Early

December 11, 2014December 5, 2014 - T Leave a comment

Since we were in America close to T’s birthday, he got to celebrate a little early.

Someone is excited. He doesn’t know what it is yet, but it looks good.

Can you tell he thoroughly enjoyed it?

We love you baby T. How are you one year old already?

Visiting California

December 7, 2014December 5, 2014 - T Leave a comment

We were so glad to get to go to California for a week to visit family. C’s grandparents live there (the kids only great-grandparents), as well as two aunts and one cousin.

Playing with Cousin Ian.

At lunch with Granddad.

And Nanny.

Playing with Aunt Laurie.

Group shot!

Looking at a calendar with Nanny.

When we visited them last time at their home, E was 16 months old and she liked riding on Nanny’s scooter. This time Granddad had one too but she was a little shy about riding on it. On the last day, she finally did. She was given this costume for her birthday, and she wore it almost the whole week. Of course everyone in their assisted living facility enjoyed seeing the little princess going everywhere.

Checking mail with Nanny.

There are lots of artists on this side of the family. E enjoyed painting with Granddad.

Reading with Granddad.

We had a great time visiting family!

C’s Birthday

December 5, 2014 - T Leave a comment

It was fun to get to celebrate C’s birthday in America this year. We had lunch with my parents and his mom.

Baylor’s New Stadium

December 1, 2014November 20, 2014 - T Leave a comment

A long time ago, I realized from the Baylor alumni emails that go out, that we would actually be in Texas when the new stadium opened. I thought it would be awesome to get to go to the first game! Well, alas, it proved difficult for us to find tickets to that game, so we bought tickets to the game the next weekend. We bought two tickets, I should say. While I felt a little bad depriving my kids of the game day experience, I figured I would enjoy the experience a bit more sans offspring. So my parents happily agreed to keep the kids while we went. And T cooperated by learning to take a bottle before then.

After a stop for lunch at Schmaltz’s (the best sandwich ever! Like Scholtzskys but better times a 1000!), we headed over to campus and our first stop was to visit the place where “our swing” used to be!

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(Flashback to 2003)

Then we visited the Burleson Quad and the echoooooooo.

We got over to the stadium and found our brick.

And then headed inside the stadium, just in the nick of time, before the deluge began! The red cell hovered over the stadium and it rained a lot for about an hour.

Luckily we found some friends to hang out with.

We had tickets in the front row of third section, but the view from there was actually really good. After halftime, we moved down to the second section and sat with some friends who had empty seats beside them. Then in the last quarter, we moved down to the first section and sat with some other friends who had empty seats beside them.

It was a great game and so much fun to see the new stadium!

Taking the kids to Waco

November 29, 2014November 20, 2014 - T Leave a comment

Waco holds a special place in our hearts. C lived there some growing up and after high school, and we both lived there in college, and I taught there one year after college. There are sights to see, people to visit with, and places to eat. Some of our favorite “hole-in-the-wall” places are in that town.

We headed up for the day of the first football game in the new stadium. We had tried to get tickets but couldn’t. I still thought it would be fun to be in town for the “atmosphere” of the first game.

We got into town about 2 pm on game day (the game didn’t start til 6 pm). We parked and walked over to the stadium area and man, was it hot! We found the tailgate of our church we attended in college, visited with a few people and then walked towards the stadium. The crowds were getting heaver and we were hot so we left after that. We got Bush’s to-go (our favorite chicken place) and headed to Papa Steve’s to watch the game in air conditioned comfort while the children went to bed early! That’s the way to do it, I tell ya!

I was glad to see the festivities, and knew we would be back the next weekend with actual tickets!

We stayed with “Papa Steve” as everyone calls him. We sure missed Gigi Jan!

Swinging!

Papa Steve made his famous fajitas on Memorial Day and had his kids over and some other friends. These two sweet girls are born just a few weeks apart and have almost identical names.

I guess her momma and I have pretty good taste in names.

These two are up to something…

The next morning we headed over to campus to see the sights. We showed the kids the tree and place where the swing used to be where we got engaged, the SUB, the Bear Pit, and visited one of my old professors in the new building for the School of Ed.

Then we headed to Vitek’s, for a “Gut Pack”, which starts with fritos and then is topped with sliced sausage, followed by pickles, onions, jalapenos, shredded cheese, chopped beef, beans and barbecue sauce. Yum. (Although I don’t get the pickles, onions or jalapeños.)

The last day in town, we visited with these guys. Sweet friends who have kiddoes very close in ages to ours. The girls had a blast playing and the boys and fun sharing cheerios.

Thanks for a good trip Waco!

Railroad Museum

November 27, 2014November 20, 2014 - T Leave a comment

On one of the days of our beach trip, we headed into town to check out some of the local attractions, including the Railroad Museum.

It was so hot outside looking at train cars, so these two waited inside and snacked.

I liked the inside of this mail car. But then I do really like mail.

My dad was a railroad engineer for 40+ years. He worked for Union Pacific at the end, so this is like trains he has driven. I’m glad E got to see these with Pappaw.

Sitting in the caboose.