January 24th

Today's expected high was 38F and it rained all day this meant that it melted some of the snow, but not all of it.  Also, it is now really slick on the roads.

I worked in William's classroom today with one of his classmates.  I'm pretty worn out.  Also, I'm tired because I stayed up late finishing the book I bought on Tuesday.  It was totally worth it.  And a friend sent a bag of clothes & shoes to pick through for my kids, so we did that before we headed out.

My children do not like to leave the school.  Here's a picture of some of them "rolling" down the hall slowly when it was time to leave.

Emily has decided that she wants to learn Fuer Elise, and she has spent at least 2 hours in the past day practicing the new music!

Billy is helping her too, since he sight read it in no time (and totally acts like it's nothing.)  But she's making great strides!

I listened to and cried while listening to Songs About Texas, by Pat Green, because sometimes I just miss home so incredibly much.  And, him being a Tech alum, he totally gets it.

Now it's time for bed.

later days

Daily Entry

How awesome would it be if I documented every day instead of once every couple of weeks, or once a month?  Well, today I'm updating the blog again, even though I just posted some entries yesterday. It's a little entry, but I think lots of little entries are more desirable than one big post.

So, today, we made Texas shaped blueberry muffins.  They came out better than I expected (I pictured them sticking in the mold and coming out in pieces) but were too much work for the return. = )

Over the weekend, Grace got sick.  She woke up retching, and soiled all of the sheets & blankets she was using.  I had to wash them in shifts, on sanitize, and the comforter pictured was thrown in with a secondary blanket we pulled from the closet.  This secondary blanket is green, and despite being purchased used, managed to tint everything in the wash green. = 0

So, laundry fail on my part, and now I want Andes mints each time I see it. lol.

Emily's VIP day is coming up the first week of March, so we took the time to make her poster.  She picked out close to 50 pictures.  We compromised, and she selected 9 large ones, and the rest I printed 4 per page.

I tried to find Alice's from last year, and couldn't find it in the blog or on facebook.  It's not a great picture of her, so maybe I skipped out on posting it.  But I had to sow the personality difference of my two older girls.  

I'm pretty sure I spent more time printing Alice's pictures than she spent assembling her project. Emily spent at least an hour choosing, prioritizing, counting and displaying. = )

It was a nice day, even though I spent time I had allotted for one of my 'to-do' list items filling out surprise paperwork and paying unexpected bills. = (

later days

Projects

My mom brought back an authentic Texas flag star for me on one of her trips. it took me a while to figure out how to display it, but this is what came to mind:

Sadly, I broke the square glass, and did not care for the black lettering.  I took to facebook with some options.  This one was the top pick:

And tried out this pattern too:

Ultimately, I decided that I didn't care for any font, and just put up the star. = )

I also started to make my own sugar cubes, for economical purposes = ), and of course picked a themed mold.  Sadly, these things are huge, even for this sugar fiend*.  The humidity here has been high, but the temperature low, so we've been living with the windows open for the past 3 weeks!  This means it takes days for the sugar to dry, so the first few batches weren't very pretty.  I've since perfected my method, so if you stop by, I'm happy to share!

My latest endeavor came from a rummage sale that my mom and I happened upon.

They had 3 options, and naturally, I purchased all three!  The catch, of course, was that a large portion of the game was on cassette tape^!  So, after a few weeks of searching, I found a brand new, in package, cassette player, with headphones and speakers for $5** at goodwill! $5!!!!!

I've since printed the envelopes, even sealed them with wax!  Can't wait for this soiree at the end of July!  We still need to round up some costumes.

Summer activities are just so fun!

later days

*so, I only fill them half full now. = )
^this is necessary, so that the host can participate in the game as well!
**this is outrageous.  it is antiquated technology, and $5 is my normal budget for the entire trip!  but, my need outweighed the cost, literally.

A care package from Texas

Earlier this year, Erin Elise sent me a care package, all the way from Lubbock!

She included toys for the kids, a movie, as well as some spices for us adults. = )  It was well received and I've already used several of the blends she sent!

yum!

later days

A new blog

For the past few months, google has been warning me that my space is almost full.  I could pay, yearly, for more data, but decided that moving across the country was the perfect time to get a new email and a new blog! = )

If you want to see what our lives have been like for the past few years, you can visit the librum of time.

So what does life in Michigan look like for a family of displaced Texas?

the twins have mastered the art of begging

celebrating fall

haircuts have a way of making little boys look so much older!

the twins arguing over who is taller  (it's Juliet in this moment, by .5")

My embroidery/sewing machine has it's own computer!

billy bought me the collectors edition, something I've wanted for over a decade!

alice has 20 minutes of required reading each evening, so she tries out new positions to keep it fresh

getting into the spirit of autumn!

my stripy Emily!

they found a bug...a dead bug, but it was quite interesting

"mommy and princess"

domino designs

Emily made " <3 U Mom"

Decorating our new home.  You can get the cutouts from 23 Mills:

Essentially, it looks exactly like life in Texas, just with more layers.

later days