Jeramy leaves for the rig tomorrow...already...*sigh*. I wish he had about another week before he had to leave. I have some light bulbs I would like changed...and it would be good to have a few more evening to hang out on the couch together. This hitch home Jeramy spent the first week in the office covering for a coworker and the second week and then some out in West Texas for the holidays. This is our third night home from our trip and it's just gone by too fast. So tonight I thought I would make an extra nice meal for his last night home.

So, how exactly is a beef tenderloin supposed to look after it's cooked? I read a friend's blog last week and for Christmas dinner they had a beef tenderloin which sounded amazing. So I found a recipe and followed it exactly and it still turned out as basically a big hunk of raw meat with a cooked exterior. I was able to salvage it by slicing and then cooking the slices in a pan, but I'm pretty sure that's not the point. So, off to research and figure out what I did wrong. Maybe I should just stick to casseroles and stir-fry.

The house feels a little vacant tonight, we already put all of our Christmas stuff up. It was either do it today, or it would have to wait until Jeramy got back. I don't think I could take another 3 weeks of stockings hanging from the fireplace.

Until the New Year, Peace be with you and your family.

The Day Mom Missed Christmas...or at least the part where she has to cook and do dishes.

The children, even 33 year old ones, were all nestled and snug in their beds when 8am rolled around and Grandpa started banging on the door. What five year old isn't up at the crack of dawn to open presents? Our five year old of course....she was tired.

We invited my grandparents over to watch the kids open presents and I figured that Ryleigh would definitely be up by 7:30 or 8 at the latest, but since we all stayed up so late on Christmas Eve we were all snoozing away well after the sun had peeked above the horizon. It was all good though, we needed to get up and get after it, it would be a long day ahead!

Everyone received more than enough in gifts, especially the girls. We may have to rent a U-Haul to get all this crap, I mean gifts back to Katy. Ryleigh was delighted to find that she had indeed been good enough to get her DSLite from Santa. The same dumb Santa had a DSLite back in Katy but left it in the top of the closet and therefore had to procure a second DSLite and sincerely hopes that the first DSLite can be returned without hassle. Along with the duplicate Sleepy Time Dora that Avery received. Dumb Santa.

After gifts come lunch and my Mom is in charge of lunch for about 30 family members from both sides of the family. Becca and I usually help and I was glad to be able to help more this year because for the first time in 6 years I was neither pregnant nor did I have an under two year old to care for. Freedom is good. But brownies that carry bad pecans are not and apparently that's what got served on Christmas Eve and those of us that ate them paid the price. First Jeramy who went to bed at 9pm on Christmas Eve, then me who was up in the middle of the night and finally mom. Two hours before everyone was due to arrive and about the time all final preparations needed to be made for lunch she was down for the count. In bed with a bad tummy ache. Fortunately for everyone my mom raised a couple of girls that aren't scared of the kitchen. Becca and I furiously started whipping up pies and deviled eggs, we got the tableware all out and set, brewed the tea, made grandma do the gravy and we were all good to go. Poor mom missed the whole dinner, she didn't get to say hi to a single guest. By the time she emerged from her room at 9pm, everyone was gone and the kitchen was clean.

Mom did make it out for our annual tradition of watching the VHS tape of Christmas from 20 years ago. Christmas 1989 was a special year filled with gifts of sweat suits, Scattergories, a pool table and godzilla. It was the year that Curtis got a mini pool table which my sister and I discovered at 3am and decided to play with until my parents heard us and sent us back to bed at around 3:30am. I got a race track and declared that I shall open no other gift so that I could just play with my race track. The best part was when my 8 year old sister opened a gift that was not marked for anyone. Inside was a nice ring which she declared as her own. Steve promptly scolded her for opening to her mother's gift to which she was deeply sorry because the Beckanomics 2nd principle of "finders keepers" had be thwarted. She then went back to the pile of gifts and found one clearly marked as hers, read the lable to all so that all would know and then went about her business of opening gifts.

Without a doubt this has been an eventful year. Some really awesome events and some not so awesome. There were many moments during the last few days that I just had to thank god for my family. Of course my fantastic husband and beautiful girls, but the extended group as well. I'm glad that we all have each other and that the sane can balance out the insane.

I hope that 2010 will be a year of no moving, a year of growing and a year of understanding. But most of all I hope that 2010 will bring us all more love and happiness than we ever thought possible.

Cheers and Happy New Year!

Out West

Friday Ryleigh got out of school at noon since it was the last day of the 3rd six weeks. We are now officially halfway through Kindergarten. Yeah, I'm totally stunned. I can not believe how fast it's all going. First grade, here we come!

So on Friday since Ryleigh got out of school early we loaded up and headed to Austin to see our friends Karen and Jeremy and their adorable little 12 month old, Autumn. Karen and Jeremy met at our wedding, they actualy walked down the aisle together as bride's maid and groom's man. Hmmmm, wonder who made that happen...:) It was so awesome to see them and little Autumn. All three girls took a bath together Saturday morning and it was just unmeasurable cuteness to see them playing together in the bath.

Saturday we made it the rest of the way to West Texas just in time for the Wood family Christmas event at my Uncle Wayne and Aunt Kelly's new house. I love having to walk around a big ol' pile of horse crap on my way to the front door of a house. And of course, the evening wouldn't have been complete without the dog getting sprayed by porcupine quills. But hey, the food was awesome and the company even better. It's always nice to see all the cousins that I grew up with, especially now that we all have our own little families.

So we've already eaten at Habanero's and had the midnight munchies chimichanga from the gas station, so that's pretty much it for decent non-hamburger type food in this town. Jeramy ventured out to the new Chinese place today for lunch, but I'll stick to my sandwiches thank you very much.

Tomorrow Santa has to make a trip to Odessa for some last minute gift buying because Santa is an idiot and left the Santa gifts in the top of the closet back in Katy. Santa is really hoping there will be no problems trying to return the DSI sitting in Katy since a second DSI has been purchased to take it's place Christmas morning. Stupid Santa.

Today is Jeramy's birthday and I'm glad we still have friends in this town because I'm laid up on the couch with a sore throat and slight fever. He just headed out to go hang out and I think I will be heading to bed shortly after the girls. Cheers NyQuil!

Thanksgiving Pics

Some pictures from our time with Papa Dale and Nana Wood...we love you guys and miss you soooo much!

Gobble Gobble

Jeramy is offshore again and has been for almost a week now. That's one down, two more to go. The only thing that is harder than having Jeramy leave to go offshore for weeks at a time is having Jeramy leave to go offshore after three fabulous weeks home. It is definitely much easier to deal with him being gone when I am racing to get him to the airport because he is annoying the shit out of me. Lesson for Jeramy, please work harder to throw more pairs of underwear on the floor and don't eat the last pickle a few days before you leave next time...you should make things easy on the ones you love when you can.

We did so much and nothing at all his last hitch home. He got to take Ryleigh to school, go eat lunch with her and pick her up off the bus any day he chose. He got to help with homework and give me a reason to make real meals. And, we went camping. In college there was a group of us that liked to make an annual November camping trip to New Braunfels for a little time next to the river. Those trips involved much more beer and ham than our little family trip. I also remember the college trips being a bit more relaxing, but maybe that's because I was only responsible for one meal during the trip. So things change. And now it's a family trip and it was fantastic. The girls really had a blast and have never been so filthy in their lives. They are now expert duck scarer awayers and now know that smores are not meant to be made in a microwave. Mission accomplished.

Tomorrow the girls and I head to Brownwood to meet up with my grandparents for a little turkey, stuffing and hanging out watching the deer walk by time. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I can't even begin to list all things that I am thankful for in my life. But more than anything, my wonderful husband and my fabulous girls.

Here are the best pics from the camping trip:

Jobby Job

Because my life has been way too blissfully simple, unstressful and non-scheduled I have taken on a part-time job. It's something I can do at home and I'm basically the personal assistant for some friends of ours in Canada trying to expand their business into Texas. One of the things I have been doing is posting job descriptions on various websites in the hopes of finding them some employees.

Parents of 22-30 year olds, did you not think your child would need to know how to write a resume??? The Chinese are definately going to take over the world if what I've seen roll in so far from degreed candidates is any indication of the next generation of American workers. And it pains me to say this, but the worst have been from the Hire Aggies website. See for yourself. These are taken from actual resumes submitted by adults that claim to want to be hired. Enjoy.

OBJECTIVE To receive a well paying position.

Server: Performed server duties .....tipped $100 on numerous occasions for outstanding service.

OBJECTIVE Seeking an entry level position as ________ in research at __________.

Major GPR: ___, Overall GPR: 2.849


Seriously, glad you let me know that you are looking for a well paying position, otherwise I might have thought you want to work for free. Thanks for the heads up on the $100 tips. When we want to order in for a working lunch I'll know who to ask to set the table. And really, if you can't bother to remember to properly fill in the blanks on your resume template how the hell did you manage to remember to put on underwear this morning.

Ahhhh, it sure feels good to work again.

As Told By Melissa

My sister-in-law's sister wrote this on Facebook and I thought it was so funny I just had to repost here for my friends to read. Enjoy.

*Note: Dear Grandma, I did not write the F word, my friend did. I am praying for her as I repost this and laughing my ass of.



Ok, so here in Austin there is ample opportunity to be annoyed by bumper stickers, so you basically have to turn off your analytical mind while driving, or else you'll give yourself an ulcer. But today, I saw one that really drove me crazy. It said, "The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth." Why does this make my head explode a little bit? It makes no fucking sense AND the conclusions you can draw from its propositions are actually harmful.

Let's examine this. Proposition 1: The earth does not belong to us. Ok. Fine. The person is trying to express that we should stop trashing it. There are a couple problems here. A. People tend to take better care of their own property than they do of community property, so I'm more likely to litter on someone else's land than my own land. Maybe if the earth did belong to "us" we'd be more careful with it. B. Available empirical evidence DOES seem to suggest that the earth belongs to many of us. I know my parents have property titles. They also don't pour used motor oil on their own ground. (You should see them dumping barrels of crude on our neighbors' land though! Hilarious.) Now the ocean on the other hand, that doesn't really belong to anyone, so who is supposed to be keeping it clean? Community property is almost always a victim of free riders if it's not properly regulated. If I owned the ocean, I'd make damn sure that no one was overfishing it, so as to preserve its value.

Proposition 2: We belong to the earth. Now this is certainly the most obnoxious part, because it makes zero sense. A. Prove it. B. Ok, you're trying to say that when we die we all eventually return to the earth in some way, like as ashes or in the form of our blood running through the streets... Yeah, but this doesn't disprove that we own the earth, because when you die you relinquish your property rights anyway. So we can in fact die, having owned the earth, and then pass on our ownership to someone else. C. Let's say the earth DOES own us. The earth is a shitty property manager. If I were the earth and I owned all the humans, I'd evict about half of them. Now you may say, yees yees, that is what the earth is trying to do with hurricanes and shit. But then the earth is just stupid, because its really not targeting its enemies very well. People who tend to die from natural disasters are often people who are pretty darn poor and lacking in transportation away from said disaster, and you know what else poor people often do? (When possible) They conserve their scarce resources.

Now if I were to go find this lovely Whole Foods patron who so naively displays this illogical car art, and explain to her that her reasoning is flawed and actually counterproductive, I'm guessing she might employ some sort of interpretive dance hand motions to express to me that I'm missing the point because there is some sort of spiritual, communal vibe to it. Ok, whatever. So maybe I'm "reading too much into it." Well you know what? You're the one who posted this crap on your car for ALL to see, whether they want to or not, with some sort of childish hope that maybe one person would refuse that plastic bag at the grocery store or donate to Green Peace. Let's not dumb down these conversations. Let's admit that pragmatic solutions to problems, like well-defined property rights and regulatory bodies who actually have some sort of bite to them, are a good way to preserve the value of the earth's resources. Don't even get me started on all the terrible environmental destruction that has occurred in Africa (oil and water), the Phillipines (forests), and Brazil (forests) as a result of a few temporary politicians raping the resources that belong to "the state" and then retiring to the Bahamas or wherever. Oh also, take a look at the Iraq constitution where it says that "the oil belongs to the Iraqi people." Right.

So in conclusion, fuck bumper stickers.

Things That Make Me Go ARRGGHHHH!

Have you seen this?



The best part of the whole thing is where she walks her child down the aisle of artificially colored, sugar filled drinks and puts her arm around him as to say, someday son, maybe the economy will turn around and we won't have to drink water anymore.

When I was a kid we rarely had "extra" stuff in our fridge and pantry like popular soft drinks and snacks. I can remember going over to other kid's houses and seeing their pantries bursting at the seams with fruit roll ups, Oreos and other goodies. Damn my mom and her desire to only feed us real food! Our idea of a sugary splurge were those little Kool Aid packets you could get 10 for a dollar. Mom would mix them in a gallon pitcher with a cup of sugar and water and then call it juice. She claims now that she didn't know any better, that's just how people fed their kids then. People, we know better.

Our kids are fat. A first grader with a cholesterol problem is child abuse. I don't know if taxing the foods that cause our kids to be fat is the ultimate answer, but if it causes one parent to decide to pass on the crap this week and make do with water or 100% juice (which my kids think is a special treat), then who are we REALLY harming? The hundreds of corporations that are fighting against this tax because making our kids fat is their business, that's who.

Real Women Move Heavy Things

I had to to go the doctor last week for back pain, something that I have never had an issue with in my entire life. Apparently I have been lifting and heaving too many boxes and large pieces of furniture over the past few weeks. Lack of a husband will cause one to do such things when one has barely moved into a new house. So now I have back pain pills which is cool, but the side affects (or effects, whatever the hell is right) cause me to have to drink lots of prune juice which is not so cool. I assured the doctor I would not lift anything else for a few weeks, right after I finish tidying up the garage from when my husband "tidied up the garage" and after I finish decorating the dining room which has a large armoire right in my way.

So, here is my finished dining room (well, it could use a few more accessories and a new rug):

And here is the girls' bathroom, also in need of more hot pink accessories:

I still suck at decorating, but I am pleased with these spaces so far. There is still lots to do in the house, but I am officially on a painting hiatus and hope to stay that way until after the new year.

I fall more in love with this house every day. My parents were here for Avery's birthday and they both seemed to be very proud of this real estate decision. We always liked our house in Sugar Land, but never really loved it. Well, maybe I did love my KitchenAid appliances that I didn't even get to enjoy for a year...you're welcome new, ungrateful homeowners.

But back to this house, the neighbors have all been really great so far and the home is just so open, but cozy. I have been able to stay on top of the cleaning in this house and so far no one has fallen down the one single stair leading into the front door and broken a rib. That in no way guarantees any future avoidance of drunken rib breaking but the downsizing of the number of stairs is bound to work in our favor.

Two Little Fairies

And this year's Halloween costumes are...

Life's Little Surprises

This morning I had my MOPS meeting and at the last minute I decided to go. MOPS is a group of stay at home moms that meet at a church in Houston and basically provide support to each other and a break from the kiddos every other week as childcare is provided by the church free of charge. The speaker today was supposed to be the church's pastor and he was to talk about marriage. I'm not a big fan of listening to preachers talk about marriage because the marriage they usually talk about is not my marriage. And we like our marriage the way it is thank you very much.

Apparently the pastor forgot that he was supposed to be talking to us and instead we got an assistant pastor whose wife is in our group so basically he couldn't say anything that would tick her off...the world submissive didn't come up once. Amen.

He actually talked about the role of the stay at home mom, a role that after two years I'm starting to settle in to. The talk was pretty good, especially given the fact he had all of ten minutes to prepare. He spoke about our role as our husband's helper and assistant. He made the point that it's not the easiest job in the world being the sole breadwinner for an entire family (especially in this economy) and that as the primary shopper in the family we, as the wife/mother, should take care of the family finances in a very frugal manner. This in turn makes our husbands feel more secure in their role as breadwinner...they feel as though they have won enough bread.

On the way home I began to go over in my mind all that I have spent on decorating our new house in an attempt to have a nice place for my breadwinner to come home to. As I started to feel guilty I began to list the items I could still take back rather than hang on the wall. Then it came to me...a sign.

I checked our mail and found a check from the insurance company for overpayment on the house insurance at closing.

What guilt was I talking about?

Would You Like Some Rant With Your Lunch?

I just got back from having lunch with Ryleigh up at her school. It was fun, hanging out with all those little kids. They're all so cute and sweet and....JUST KIDDING!!

God bless our teachers, those kids are crazy! They make you take your kid and go sit over at a table by yourself and what an excellent idea that is. I still could barely hear my kids over all the chatter though. After we were done eating Ryleigh took me over to meet all of her friends. There are some really sweet girls in her class but the boys were just out of control. An all girls school isn't sounding too shabby right about now. After lunch all the kids had to line up against the wall. I was talking to Ryleigh and her friends and then I turn and look over and the boys are holding their lunch boxes up in the air and letting the other boys kick at it. Geeze! They responded well to me telling them to stop but really, I now get what Ryleigh is talking about when she says the boys are always causing trouble. Man, I love my girls.

What killed me though was seeing what some parents send in their child's lunchbox. And would you believe it, the kids with the most fatty and sugary items are the ones that are already overweight at the age of 5. Go figure. I'm not saying that I'm the role model of health consciousness, but really, if you send BBQ potato chips and sugary kool-aid to school with your kid for lunch you can just expect them to grow up and have the habits and the health of someone who ate BBQ potato chips and sugary kool-aid every day for lunch. Word.

Back to Kindergarten

Tonight was a sort of orientation at Ryleigh's school for the parents. I got to sit in Ryleigh's classroom and hear from her teacher about what the curriculum is going to be like and what the expectations are going to be for the year.

Basically, she needs to be able to read "See Spot run." by the end of the year.

See how easy that was? And I didn't use up a valuable hour of your life like her teacher did of mine tonight. So, what was talked about for the remaining 59 minutes and 52 seconds of the orientation?

Well, for one, it was explained that if we need to change our child's mode of transportation home for the day, we need to let them know as soon as possible... and in written format, like a note, on paper... written in pen, pencil or grape jelly, whatever is handy. For safety reasons, obviously...

So this one dude raises his hand and goes: "This is just a suggestion, but you guys should set up something on the website that would allow parents access by password only where we could submit a request to change the transportation." And this other dude goes: "Yeah, that would work really easy, I know how you would write the code to do it." And the original geek, I mean dude goes "Oh, it would be sooooooo easy. I would do it for free if they want me to."

And as I roll my eyes and wonder if these guys work for the government given the amount of wasted time they would be willing to endure in order to avoid having to write a sentence on a post it once or twice a year I think to myself....I so love my totally non-geeky husband whose first thought would have been; my wife takes care of the note writing around here.

Pictures from the Frio

We Both Got An Education Today

The day that the mover's showed up to deliver our household goods I found a little something waiting for me on the front porch. It was what appeared to be an animal turd of some sort. It was large enough for me to notice, but not large enough to be from a cat or a dog, even a small one. The turd was about an inch long and of course Avery stepped right in it because the laws of physics clearly dictate that when a one inch turd is on a 25 square foot porch and a child is approaching, that child will certainly and without fail step in the turd.

So, I quickly washed the squished turn off of her shoes so I wouldn't be picking it out of the cracks of her soles later and spent the remainder of the day and at various moments since then wondering what creature left such a lovely "welcome home" gift on my front porch. Of course I decided that it was most likely a snake. A small snake, but a snake. Snakes are what I fear seeing in my front garden the most and the lack of snakes is what I think made Newfoundland the most appealing to me. Kind of funny considering I grew up hunting rattle snakes and even found a few in my own backyard.

Fast forward to today, a nice Sunday, a good day to take my eldest daughter to the Children's Museum for a little mommy and Ryleigh time. In the newly renovated outdoor area of the museum there is a building that sort of looks like a cabin in the woods. Inside the building is an exhibit devoted to woodland type creatures including a special section on tracking such creatures. And the feature method....turd identification! Oh snap...I'm gonna find my turd.

Y'all.....it was a toad turd. And since I failed to take a picture of the actual turd and thought it would be kind of creepy to take a picture of the fake turd at the museum I have scoured the internet for a picture that might make this post come alive for you. There is a lovely video on YouTube which I contemplated posting but since I don't know if you are eating at the moment and I am not drunk, I'll let you go find that one for yourself.

Movin' On

Today is the 44th day in this apartment. That is 44 days of sleeping in the most uncomfortable bed I've ever slept in. Well, I take that back, the hotel we stayed in at Trey Brown's wedding had a worse bed. Not only was it uncomfortable, it also had some sort of red stain on the side of the mattress and I refused to be anywhere near the comforter, which meant I spent the whole night shivering. But the beds in this apartment are definitely a close second. My back is quite sore and my shoulder (which I dislocated several times as a teenager and had surgery on when I was 19) is killing me. Tonight, it ends.

Tomorrow the movers will be bringing our things to the new house. AND, Mattress Firm will bring the new mattress. We won't have a fridge for another 9 days and we won't have cable until Monday, but I will be sleeping on a Stearns and Foster pillow top tomorrow night. Amen.

I really am not a great housewife. I know this, I admit it, I belong in a cubicle. I belong in front of a computer or in a conference room at a random and pointless meeting. I really feel that, I am comfortable and confident there. But I am working on this whole housewife thing. The kids and the "wifely duties", I've got that down. Tending to the house...not so much.

In an effort to do better, I have decided to take a more active interest in decorating. And this is big for me because I hate decorating. I really do. I remember how in college my friend Davi had her apartment decorated so awesomely cute and she always seemed to have just found some sweet deal on everything that she used. I would spend twice as much money and end up with a nice rug, not a whole living room. And she can sew...I've had a sewing machine for four years, it's still in the box.

So, for the 44 days that I've spent in this apartment I have studied things like color combinations and patterns and materials and you should see the stack of magazines in my living room. I have spent hours wandering around decorating stores, just taking it all in, hoping that some of it will sink in. My friends tell me that I need to be willing to buy stuff and take it back if it doesn't work out. This is hard for me as well, spending money on something that really will serve no purpose except to sit there and look pretty. But I'm working on it, and I think it's going to be good.

I spent the weekend painting our bedroom and the dining room. I'm not showing any pictures until it's all done, but I think it's going to be fabulous. Hopefully, maybe. And yes, this is why I have been so absent on my blog, I've been studying.

One more glass of wine and I'm off to bed, got to get some good sleep, tomorrow will be a very big day!

All Sorts of New Stuff

Kindergarten. It has begun. Ryleigh's first day in Kindergarten was two weeks ago. She was so nervous the weekend before, and so was mama. Sunday night we were both basket cases trying to get ready for bed and get ready for the day ahead. Ryleigh went to bed the first time at 8, but it was well past 10 before she finally got to sleep.

Monday morning we all popped out of bed and got ready in record time. Jeramy's office is just a few blocks from our temporary apartment so we picked him up on the way to Ryleigh's school, which is abo0ut 30 minutes away. We went ahead and enrolled her in the school that the neighborhood where our new house is goes to. Thirty Minutes...each way. Jeramy, Avery and I all walked her to her classroom. She seemed a little unsure of her surroundings, but didn't cry and didn't try to make us stay. Since I did my crying the night before, I was holding my own. I walked out the door with Jeramy behind me and Avery on my hip. Dad had to turn and take one last peek before we could completely walk away and when we did walk away it was Avery with the worried cry.."Sista! Sista!...Momma, Sista!"


So I felt good about the drop off and was looking forward to the pick-up. Her school lets out at 3:40, I got there at 3:20 and I got to load her into the car at 4:10. She seemed a little dazed, kind of like she didn't know what was going on. After we pulled out of the parking lot and began the drive home I asked her how her day was to which she responded..."Awful". Uh oh. She continued to tell me that she was so hungry because her teacher didn't let her eat her lunch, and by the way her teacher didn't smile at all and was so mean, and she hates her new school and she is HUNGRY! Then the tears came and I just really didn't know what to do. So I reached back behind me and took her hand and let her cry while I drove us to Chick-Fil-A. After scarfing down her chicken and chocolate milk she got some good play time in and was in a much better mood. But yikes, it was real touch and go for a little bit.

Over the past few weeks, things have gotten much better. She has started to make friends and has found lots of joy in her P.E. class, art class and music class. She has also learned to look forward to her weekends and was super excited when I told her yesterday that this weekend she gets THREE days off. Whatever will we do with so much time!!

I will be painting the majority of this weekend. We closed on our house last Thursday! The carpets will be cleaned on Tuesday, our household goods shipment will be delivered on Wednesday along with our new mattress!! Jeramy and I have had nothing but hand me down mattresses our entire cohabiting life, so this is huge for us. Also being delivered on Wednesday is our washer and dryer, but my new mega awesome fridge will take two weeks to come in. So, we will either wait to move into the house or we'll resort to ice chest living. It all depends on how badly I want to stop driving 30 minutes each way to drop off and pick up Ryleigh!

Jeramy leaves on Tuesday for his new, new, but not permanent rig. Explanation...when we moved back Jeramy was put in an Assistant Performance Rig Manager position, but last week that changed. Apparently he had mastered that position in a mere month and now he will be a Drilling Engineer, which is a rotating position. And they're putting him on a brand spankin' new rig that hasn't even made it all the way to the gulf yet. So, they're shipping him out to a rig to start learning on because this is a position that he knows less than shit about for the most part. However, he is really excited to get to work in this area. It is a position that he had asked for when we were in Canada and we think they intended to put him in it all along, they just weren't ready to right when we got back. The rotating part will be an adjustment, but the good thing is when he's home...HE IS HOME. Except when he's in training. *Sigh*....Such is life right, roll with it? Did I tell you I got a new fridge....29 cubic feet of fridge??

Time to paint...gotta get this done cause I gots me a hot date tonight! My oil riggin' man is taking me out for my favorite pork chops and a movie!

Returning to Texas, Cyber Style

Yay for me...I updated our blog! We are now officially in Texas, my blog says so.

We had a great visit with my sister this weekend. She and Blake came in on Saturday and headed for home this morning. Unfortunately I was sick the whole time with a middle ear infection, but we all know they were here to see the girls anyway. Not sure how I got a middle ear infection, but I think it might have had something to do with us going swimming last weekend. Talk about ouch, it's not something I hope to repeat again, ever.

Despite the girl in a coma on the couch holding her ear, we had a great time just hanging out, playing games and laughing at the silliest things...like creamed corn. You had to be there. It's cool, us all being adults and having grown-up things to discuss. And since we've all been together for so long, we actually have things to reminisce about. And then there's Becca and I, in the same room, not yelling at each other. Progress without therapy, it can be done.

We said goodbye to Aunt Becca and Uncle Blake this morning but it's not for long. We're heading up to their house on Friday to hang out for the weekend and cook out for my brother's birthday. Little Curdle will be 23, not that it matters, we just want cake.

One week from Thursday we SHOULD close on our house. We hit a little bump in the road today with our lender, but I'm pretty sure that the loan dude will see the light in the morning. His appraisal came in considerably below the selling price, but these things happen when you use short sales and houses that back up to tollways as comparable sales. Idiots.

The weekend after we close on the house we're going to San Antonio for a night. My "little" cousin Haesten will be playing on the Odessa Permian varsity football team against some other team there. Yes folks, that's the team from Friday Night Lights. Ummm, and did I mention that Haesten is a freshman? Really cool stuff, and a great chance to see a lot of family.

Time to return to Texas, via Facebook.

Jennifer to Earth...I'm Still Here

Oh geeze, where to start. So much in the last two weeks...too much it seems. But it's all good, things are all starting to come together and slowly I'm starting to feel home. Okay, I'll start with today.

Ryleigh and I have been planning a mommy/Ryleigh day for a few weeks now and with Kindergarten just around the corner, I decided that we would spend the day shopping for clothes and supplies. We took off for Sugar Land this morning. And yes, I know next weekend is the tax free weekend, but yes, I will spend an extra $40 to avoid mass hysteria in the malls. And, with all the sales we hit today, I'm not sure that I didn't come out ahead....so there.

We hit Target first and loaded up on school supplies. And let me just say, I am so sick of hearing parents complain about how all the supplies get mixed up and redistributed to the kids. Knowing that Ryleigh would not necessarily get to keep the supplies I buy her made it so much easier to not buy the expensive stuff. And, what a great lesson in sharing I got to explain to her today and that she will get to learn when school starts. Good stuff if you ask me.

After Target we hit the mall, but it wasn't quite open yet so we grabbed some lunch and then set off for Gymboree where she got some adorable outfits. After Gymboree we started walking down the mall when I saw a store called Justice which seemed to carry girl's clothes, but maybe a little bit older girl's clothes. I asked a sales associate what size they started at and she said 6, exactly Ryleigh's size right now. We now have multiple "rock star" outfits and even daddy approved when we got home!

After some post-shopping gelatto we headed home where we picked up Daddy and Avery and drove on down to the Children's Museum followed by Star Pizza. All in all, a really awesome day. And, a nice break from all the craziness that has been the last two weeks.

Craziness which has included finding a cell phone, a house and a vehicle. The cell phone was easy, the house took a few days to hunt down, but we did find "the one" and it's everything that we wanted it to be. The vehicle took a little work and a lot of hunting, but we did finally find a deal we couldn't walk away from. Tomorrow I go get my new (to me) 06 Yukon. We're taking Dave Ramsey's advice and buying used after only buying new since college. And, I've never felt so good about closing a deal on a vehicle. We got my Yukon for over a thousand dollars under the trade-in value with a 12 month/12K mile warranty. Go us! Screw a bunch of new car smell and huge monthly paments. Gimme something paid for! (or really close to it)

This week we get to officially register Ryleigh for school and Jeramy leaves for the rig tomorrow evening for four days. It should be a pretty calm week for us, just hanging out and getting to know our new area. Katy isn't very far from Sugar Land, but it is a new city to learn.

I said that I'm starting to slowly feel at home. It's kind of weird to see my friends back in St. John's talking on Facebook and planning get togethers and playdates and not being able to be a part of it all. It's also kind of weird planning playdates and time together with my friends here. I kind of feel like I'm forcing my way back into a world I intentially backed out of...like a bad ex. I missed my friends here and it's so awesome being back close to all of them, but I still can't help feeling like I'm crashing back into their world which was probably just fine and dandy while I was gone. Okay, enough whining.

Time to iron some clothes and head to bed. I've gotta new (to me) car to go pick up tomorrow!

Home

Just wanted to let everyone know that we're back in the Lone Star State for good. We had a pretty easy travel day. Both of the girls were just fabulous on both flights and there were no major passport incidences. We got into Houston around 4:30 yesterday afternoon, Texas time, and made it to our temporary apartment by about 6. We sat down to a nice dinner at Jason's Deli, yum yum...missed it, and then went straight to TARGET!

The thing that sucks the most about moving is that you can't take things like cleaners and perishable food items with you. Once we got into our apartment we relized that we really had nothing. No soap, no milk, no basics. We stocked up enough to get us through breakfast today. After having some breakfast and taking daddy to work we hit the ground running. We've got a house to find and a life to get settled.


Our last weekend in St. John's we took a little day trip to a bird sanctuary down on the "south shore"....here are my favorite pics:

and this was on a Russian sail ship that was in the harbor on Saturday morning:

On Moving Back

The last few weeks have just passed by like a dream. My mind has been racing in a hundred different directions making lists and pondering the logistics of this move. There are just so many details involved in a venture such as this that you feel like you're adrift in a sea of priorities and you really wonder how it's all going to get done, but I have faith that it will all get done...it has to.


The movers arrived yesterday morning to begin packing our life into cardboard boxes. They knocked on the door at 8:45am. They weren't supposed to come until 9am and asked if it was too early. They couldn't have known what a loaded question that was so when I burst into tears it seemed to have caught them off guard. I just wanted to scream, no! not yet! I'm not ready! But, I didn't, I let them in and showed them around and let them know that the desk stays, hear that, the desk stays.


About an hour after arriving they asked me to make them some coffee. Really? Coffee? Because I've already cleaned the coffee pot and oh darn, the grinder is packed. Ten minutes later the movers announced that the grinder had been unpacked. Really? Reeeeally? Because I could have sworn that you were being paid to pack things up. Oh, and by the way, the desk stays.

So, they got most of it packed up yesterday. We got checked into the Sheraton downtown after attempting to stay at the Extended Stay Suites. At the Extended Stay we walked into our non-smoking room which reeked of cigarette smoke and sat on the beds which felt like cardboard and immediately turned around and walked back out. I totally didn't want to be that wife that's all like, I can NOT stay here, but seriously, for the children's sake, I could NOT stay there.

We headed back down to the house today to let the movers back in so they could begin loading the truck. I took the head guy on a tour and informed him that the desk was to stay. One hour later I went up to the purple room which serves as our office and found the desk half way disassembled. The desk stays people!!

We went and had lunch with friends for the second day in a row. THANK YOU BETSY!! Our things should ship out tonight. The driver told me that the load will go to Toronto to pick up another two loads and then head to Fort Worth and San Marcos before ending up in Houston. Fine by me, we don't have a place to put everything yet and probably won't before September.

So, we're just chillin' in the hotel right now. Avery is napping, Ryleigh is watching tv and I'm trying to catch up on my blog reading and writing. We hope to get all of our personal business squared away before the weekend so we can just enjoy our final few days in this place that we love so much. The plan is to have dinner at East Side Marios on Sunday night, 6ish if anyone wants to join us. Monday morning we fly out and another chapter begins...

Have Some Pictures

I just dumped a ton of pics off my camera. I'm sort of busy these days, you know, just moving from one country to the other. Enjoy some of the best ones!

Grandma Terri and the girls road trippin'!

Yet, they still love her so much!

Trouble.

Our little athlete.

Sisters Forever.

6 years of marriage, 6 homes to live in

It's official, we are moving back to Texas! Jeramy's company has transferred him back and he is being moved to a new position. It's a lateral move, but it's a move into an area that he has wanted to be in since he started back with the company over three years ago. Really it's the job that he wanted when he quit roughnecking 11 years ago and went back to college. So, I'm really happy and excited for him even if I'm not entirely pleased to be moving back to Texas so soon.


I have really adjusted well to living here. It's not the just the clean air, nice folks and mountains of snow either. I have made some fellow expat friends here that I hope will be a part of my life forever. I have grown attached to their children and look forward to the day when we are all back in Houston or hanging out during a visit to the UK, watching our kids run and play while we reminisce about our time in the Great White North.


The movers come to pack our things on July 20th and on the 21st everything gets loaded up and heads out for the trip south. We plan to stick around here in a hotel for about another week and then fly to Houston on July 27th. We spent some time during our visit home last week looking for a house, but nothing really jumped out and grabbed us. This will be our 6th residence since we got married and Ryleigh's 5th home to live in. Maybe this will be the one that we stay in for more than just a few years, maybe not since we plan to jump at the next opportunity to move abroad. To know us it to love us!


So, if you're here in St. John's, make sure we get together before we leave! And if you're down in Texas waiting on us to return, we'll see you soon y'all!

Three Cups of Tea

I just finished reading an amazing book. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.


This book has completely changed every idea I've ever had about volunteerism, service to others and giving back to my community in a very real and wonderful way. Greg Mortenson started out his life growing up in Tanzania as the son of missionary parents. At a very young age he became addicted to mountain climbing, an addiction that led him to attempt hiking K2 in Pakistan. His attempt failed and while coming off the mountain, lost and his health deteriorating, he stumbled upon a village that would set the course for the rest of his life. In Korphe, Pakistan he found hosts that nursed him backed to health and children scratching multiplication tables into the dirt. In appreciation for the village's hospitality he promised to build them a school.


Mortenson wasn't a professional fundraiser and though he had watched his father build a hospital in Tanzania, he didn't have any experience raising funds for and overseeing a major construction project.

So he just did...that simple, he just did.

He came back home and wrote over 500 letters to celebrities and the like, soliciting funds for his school. He received one $100 check. He eventually found a donor willing to finance the whole school which he estimated to cost $12,000. With the cash in his bag he flew to Pakistan and for the rest of the story you just have to read the book, it's truly unbelievable. Over a decade later Mortenson continues to build multiple schools every year in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

This book will make you say "What can I do TODAY to help someone else...someone who has had far fewer opportunities in life than I have?" This book will make you realize that it doesn't take a huge fundraising effort to make good things happen, if your heart is set on it and your mind believes in it, it can and will happen.

The book also touches on the horrible side effects of war, especially modern war, and the severe lack of cross-cultural understanding that is prevalent in our society today. His life is proof that so many international conflicts could be solved through open and receptive talk...over a few cups of tea.


Mortenson's Fundraising Organizations:

Central Asia Institute
Pennies for Peace

Time in Arlington

We've been hanging out at my sister's house all week and it's been a real blast making her home look like mine. It's so much fun to see her come home from work and look around in disgust then spend the next hour cleaning up after my kids. It kind of reminds me of when we used to share a room as children and she would get pissed at me for leaving my clothes on the floor and I would just leave them there because it pissed her off and then she would do my laundry. Good Times.


On Sunday we had a great visit with the Wallaces. Karen and Jeremy met at our wedding and have since gotten married and produced an adorable little symbol of my best matchmaking skills to date. Their little girl was so sweet and adorable and it was awesome to finally be able to meet her. On Monday the girls and I drove out to Granbury to see Jeramy's grandparents. Ryleigh got to show Nana her recording of the year end show at Early Achievers and go riding on Grandads golf cart. Tuesday we went to the Fort Worth Zoo and then met up with our former stepmom (one of them) at PF Changs for dinner. Yesterday the girls and I met up with Emily and her daughters for some playtime and Chick Fil A (I've been very much deprived of fried chicken and polynesian sauce) and last night my friend Cindy came over and hung out on the back porch. Today we might head down to the mall for a little shopping, but mostly we'll be preparing for our 7 hour drive to Amarillo tomorrow. We'll be in Amarillo until Sunday at which time we'll head to Monahans for a week of desertness before heading to Houston.


Here are a few pics from the Ft. Worth Zoo...enjoy!

The Next Time I Decide To Fly Three Airplanes in Two Countries with Two Children in One Day, Someone Please Just Throw A Shoe Directly At My Forehead

When I was preparing for my trip to Texas the thing I was most concerned about was getting through customs in Newark with two children, a stroller, a car seat on my back and all our luggage in tow. In actuality, this part of our trip went surprisingly well. I'm sure I looked like a freak show, but hey, we made it through. Things really started getting interesting when we went to board our plane in Newark.

First off, I hate the Newark airport, always have. The people there are so rude, the planes are never on time and the place is just generally dirty. It seems that everytime I board a plane in Newark passengers always crowd around gate way before they are called, which is a pain for me because as a traveller with small children, I usually get to board right after first class. This is so I can get my small children and car seat situated without having to work around a packed plane. I was not allowed to board early yesterday. When I did get up to the gate things were just crazy with so many people impatiently waiting to get on and then they had to tag my stroller since they check it at the door. And of course they had to question my car seat backpack, what's in there?...should I have checked it? oh it's going in the seat? did you buy a seat for you baby m'am? because the flight is full....arrrrrrgggggghhhhh, just let me on the plane before I prompt one of my children to throw up right here at the gate.

So once I step on the plane I realize that the passports I had in my hand at the gate are no longer in my hand and thus must have been dropped somewhere along the last 20 feet that I just walked. I quickly approach a flight attendant and let her know what I just so stupidly did to which she replies, "Federal regulations do not allow me to get off this plane, m'am." Really?? Do federal regulations allow to call someone at the gate and ask them to look down at the floor and pick up my passports? To which she replies, "Do you have your boarding pass?"

I dig out my boarding pass as she disappears and when she comes back by she totally forgets what I had asked her before. I remind her and hand off my boarding pass. Ten minutes later, the door to the plane is shut and she tells me that no one saw anything...sorry.

At this point I try to take myself to a good place, a place where I tell myself my passports will find me somehow. I will not be stuck in Texas forever, I will be able to get back to Canada.

Then...

"This is your captain speaking, we just found out as we were pulling away from the gate that there is some sort of delay along our route, probably weather. We'll be sitting here for a little bit until we find out more information which we will pass along to you. Feel free to turn on your electronic devices and thank you for your patience."

Did I mention that we only had a one hour layover in Houston? Happy Place, Happy Place, go to my happy place. We will make our flight, the passports will come back to me. I am willing it so.

We took off about 25 minutes delayed. When we landed in Houston and I got our stroller back, there was Avery's passport sitting in the top, but mine and Ryleigh's were not anywhere to be seen and we had 20 minutes to make our connecting flight which is at gate 29, we are at 19. Time to run. So we run, all the way to the other side of the terminal, only to find out that our gate had been changed to gate 22, right next to the gate that we just landed at.

Really God, Really??

So, we run back and get there just in time. I'm sweaty, the girls are not happy, but we made our flight, now I just have to get the car seat set out and....what? excuse me? you need to what?

Some douchebag male flight attendent informs me that he needs to inspect my car seat to make sure it is rated for airplane use. I have to admit, I quickly morphed into THAT passenger. THAT passenger that is not happy and is letting the wonderful folks that keep us safe in the air know that I am NOT happy. I WILL be using this car seat whether it's rated for whatever or whatever. I paid for my daughter to have her own seat and federal regulations (to quote a previous douchebag flight attendent) allow me to hold her in my lap so if I want to strap her to a coffee can in her own seat, I damn sure will. I have been flying with this carseat and a baby for four years and I have NEVER had my carseat inspected by some douchebag male flight attendent!

Oh god, I'm not going to make it. I just don't think DFW is within my sights anymore. They're going to take my children away and throw me in a cell with the shoe bomber.

Scared, he turns and heads to the front of the plane as I strap my approved car seat into the plane seat, sit down with my girls on either side and work on holding back the tears. I lost my passport, my husband is going to kill me. I don't have our birth certificates, I'm going to have to drive to Austin on Monday to get new birth certificates and pay out the butt to have passports made in two weeks.

Now a new flight attendent is stopping at our aisle with some paper in her hand. She's eyeing Avery and as I prepare to inform her that I did pay for my baby to have her own seat she asks for our last name. I say Montgomery and she hands me what she has in her hand and asks "Did you lose these?"

Oh my god, my passports! Thank you, thank you, thank you! She tells me that they were found in the hallway where we boarded our last plane and I told her my story about how I knew that's where they were and the flight attendent on the last flight wouldn't help me and THANK YOU!

She walked away, the plane took off and one hour last we were welcomed by Aunt Becca at DFW. She took us straight to have some Mexican food and then home for some much needed showers and rest.

As we were driving away from the airport Ryleigh spotted a plane taking off and said "Airplane! Airplane!" "Yeah Honey, Airplane." "Mom, I'm really tired of airplanes today. I don't think I ever want to fly three airplanes in one day again."

Me neither baby, me neither.

Noises From Avery's Room Post Bedtime

ya blah da blah ah la la yaaaa.

blah da ah la ya ya ya daaaaa.

ba dah la ya blah blah blaaaah.

Mama!

....

Mama!

....

blah da la la Mama!

....

bla da la la MAMA!

....

....

....

Poo poo.

....

blah da la poo ppo.

....

MAMA! poo poo.



Yes, she did indeed have poo poo. The incredible part is that she didn't just sit there and cry like she always has in the past when #2 comes after bedtime. She communicated with me like a big girl!

Yes, I know. Time to saddle up and start potty training. I don't know what makes me cry more, the fact that she's old enough to potty train or the fact that I'm going to have to be the one to do it.

It Starts

This morning the girls and I came down stairs and sat at the table for breakfast as we always do after Jeramy leaves for work. I got them set up with their normal bowls of organic koala chocolate rice crispies for Ryleigh and oatmeal from Avery and I. Then I turned on the television for our morning cartoons.

It started out on Ryleigh's cartoon channel, but I was kind of bored with that so I tried to sneak on a recorded Jon and Kate Plus 8 that I haven't seen. Ryleigh was having none of that so I turned it back to cartoons, just a different channel, a channel that had on In the Night Garden, a Canadian children's show that is similar to Teletubbies. Avery squealed with delight, Ryleigh huffed in disgust because In the Night Garden "is for BABIES!". So I turned it back to Ryleigh's original cartoon channel which quickly prompted Avery to throw and fit and reach out for the remote. Not believing what I was seeing happen before my very eyes I took the remote and changed it back to In the Night Garden. Once again Avery squealed with delight and Ryleigh let it be known that "THIS SHOW IS FOR BABIES!".

TV off....eat your breakfast and lets just all pretend that what just happened never happened (except for the fact that I'm going to blog about it later) and lets also pretend that you two didn't just get a whole day older.

Boundless Energy

This morning I ate a new energy bar which turned out to be the most disgusting thing I've ever put in my mouth. I was on my way to see my trainer and I hadn't had any breakfast, so I pretty much didn't have a choice but to choke it down. The upside, an amazing amount of energy all day long!

So much so, that I decided to clean my kitchen from top to bottom after dinner. I wanted to make it clean like other people's kitchens are clean. You know, the ones where you don't see anything but the vast expanse of a clean and empty counter top. Counter tops that don't look like they've had a meal prepared on them in months, maybe even years. When I had completed my mission, I quickly felt like a complete failure. The air smelled of Pinesol and the exposed part of the counters were clean, but the clutter seemed to still remain.

Okay, so surely I can clear out some of this stuff. There are Ryleigh's box of eye patches, if I put those away I won't remember to patch tomorrow. And there's Avery's baby's sippy cup, which she will want to giver her baby tomorrow while I am cooking. And then there are the bananas, which we go through so fast that it doesn't make sense to put them away. And what to do with Ryleigh's latest art work sent home from school that's too cool to put away where I can't admire it every day. Then there are Ryleigh's lunch box and back pack, which will need to be filled and carried out in the morning. And the paper towels, now why would I want to have to try and remember where I hid those every five minutes that something gets spilled at the table or on the floor.

Someday maybe I'll have perfectly cleared off counter tops. Someday when I don't have two beautiful little excuses to keep cluttering them up. Maybe then I'll be able to go months, maybe even years without preparing a meal on them.

I don't think Someday is something that I'm looking forward to very much because having perfectly cleared off countertops sounds a little boring to me.

La Manche

Doesn't it just roll off the tongue? Say it with me...La Manche!

La Manche is a an abandoned settlement about an hour south of St. John's. It's been abandoned for many decades. Now there is a Provincial (State) Park, some good hiking trails, a pedestrian suspension bridge and some ruins to see in the area. And of course, some great views of the ocean!

Last week I received a hiking backpack in the mail that Avery fits in so I've been really anxious to go give it a try. She fit perfectly in it and so did Ryleigh, so I know there is plenty of room for her to grow. The weather was very cooperative today, so off we sent down to La Manche!

We took about an hour to hike in and pretty much took our time so Ryleigh could rest and we could just take in all that nature had to offer. The smell, the views, the quietness (when Ryleigh wasn't being our "nature guide") was all just awesome. We finally reached our goal, a pedestrian suspension bridge. We took a little break but the girls were getting attacked by what I call the Canadian Mosquito. These little bastards swarm like mosquitoes, but their bite is much more viscous. They really draw blood. I felt like an idiot for not bringing insect repellent, but they really were much worse than I anticipated. We have them around our house, but not by the hundreds! Avery got to take a break from being in the backpack, which turned out to be a bad idea, because she in no way wanted to get back in. The return trip was a bit less enjoyable. Jeramy carried Avery back and just tried to get back to the truck as quick as possible, ya know, screaming. I could hear Avery crying for some way, and then she either quit or they just got that far ahead of Ryleigh and I. Ryleigh's legs were starting to hurt, it was a lot for such a little girl, so I had to carry her on the up parts but made her walk on the level and down parts. We finally made it back and there was Avery waving and smiling at us, happily playing in the back of Jeramy's truck.

After the hiking trip we ate at one of our favorite family diners and then went for some Moo Moo's Ice Cream. We swung by some friends' house who were having a lobster boil tonight and scored three lobsters for breakfast in the morning! Avery got a kick out of the lobsters and loved playing with the live ones while Ryleigh wanted nothing to do with them.

All in all another great family day. This will be the last one for a while. Tomorrow we have a couple of birthday parties and next Saturday the girls and I head to TEXAS!

Pop Quiz

Why did Avery have to get a bath at 4pm today?



Was it:



A. she spilled a whole drinkable yogurt down her pants and into her diaper

B. she found a tube of mommy's lipstick and decided to do her own makeup

C. while at the park she decided to go walking in the muddy stream

D. she got to give finger paints a try for the first time today

E. she decided to pour out a brand new bottle of bubbles onto her head














And the answer is.....

A little something

Today Ryleigh told me that she "knows how to log-off the computer".

Really, could you teach mama? Because if I knew how to do that better, I might be able to start taking steps toward freeing myself from Facebook.

Oh, the addiction.

On Being Ryleigh

And here is Ryleigh's update.

Ryleigh is just a few weeks away from turning 5. Five, FIVE...Oh. My. God. She's going to be FIVE. Yeah, 5 going on 17.

Sassy doesn't even begin to cover it. I could say I don't know where she gets it, but that would be a lie....she is sooooo my mother; okay and maybe a little bit of me. She is the center of her world. She is theatrical in every way (hmmm, wonder where she gets that oh brother in law of mine). Each day consists of multiple stand-offs, my will against hers. The stand-offs as I call them, always just seem so silly to me. Why can't she just do what I say? What exactly is it that is so hard about "put your shoes on", "pick up your toys out of the living room", "brush your teeth"? Seriously, she can do all of these things, easily if there is a bribe involved, why fight with me over it? Why throw yourself on the floor as if you just ran a marathon and can't find the strength to stand, let alone do as you're told?

Why, why, why???

You know that place where you still remember being that defiant little kid but aren't quite ready to come to terms with the fact you are now on the receiving end of such defiance? Yeah, I'm so there.

So, as I resisted the urge to chunk her toys across the room this afternoon, I took a deep breath and helped her pick up and put her shoes on and brush her teeth so we could spend a nice afternoon out running errands. Did I mention that she is the perfect angel when she wants to be?
She is learning to read, but she is insisting to do so at her own speed. I catch her sounding out words when I'm not looking but as soon as I ask her to do it for me, she gets shy and says she doesn't want to do it. That's cool, I still love to read to her and I know that she's soaking up more than she's willing to let on. She amazes me with her maturity. The things that she sits around and thinks about are just crazy. She has been asking me some crazy questions here lately. Things like, What was here before us...like before humans? What exactly happened to the dinosaurs? How did Avery get out of your belly? Where did the spiders go during the winter? She doesn't miss-a-thing.

Everyone always asks me how her lazy eye is doing. We went to the eye doctor when we were home in December and basically she has to keep wearing her glasses, which she does, and we patch a few days a week. To me her eye looks really great right now, even without the glasses. We go back at the end of June when we're in Texas for another check-up, so hopefully all is well.

She really enjoys spending time with all of her friends here in Canada, but sometimes gets a little sad as she realizes she can't remember the names of her friends back in Texas. Ryleigh can swing on her own, something she is super proud of. She still spends a lot of her time in her little imagination world, playing with her barbie dolls or acting out some sort of one girl production dressed up in her play clothes. For that reason I have decided to sign her up for drama camp this summer. She is really excited because I told her that she will get to perform in a show at the end of the camp. She loves to be in shows. Her first show of the summer though will be the one with her school. She will be the cow that jumps over the moon, as in Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle, the Cow (that's Ryleigh) jumped over the moon (yes, they will have a real moon).

She is not my snugly child, she's not my loving child, she's not even my obedient child. She's my sassy little independent, got to do it on my own, got to be in charge of all the planning, must make all my own decisions but at the end of the day wants mom to read me my books and stroke my forehead as I fall to sleep, beautiful, blue-eyed girl. I love her with every ounce of my being and can't imagine my world without her. She teaches me so many things, but above all patience. She is fiercely protective of her little sister, a trait that I didn't expect to see show up, but something that makes me very happy.

I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with the whole Kindergarten thing in the fall. Having her gone all day is going to be very hard for me to adjust to. I know that she's not going to have a problem. Actually she's probably going to be like, mom, seriously, if you're going to cry like a baby could you please go find a dark corner to hide in, you're totally embarrassing me in front of my peeps.