First Day of Kindergarten

Our day started at about 5:30 am when a frog was croaking outside our window so loudly that it woke both Brandon and me up.  There are no houses behind ours, and a lot of undeveloped land, so frogs are not uncommon.  But this one was loud.  (On the other hand, it ended up pouring rain most of the day, so maybe the frog was just giving me fair warning.)

We all walked Kiddo the two blocks to his school (I love that we can walk!).  Kiddo was a little shy about going into class when we first got there, but as soon as he got to his seat and his teacher got him making patterns, he was good to go.

BG and I were sort of at a loss for what to do with ourselves while H was gone, although we didn't forget to make First Day of School Cookies.  There has definitely been a lot of fussiness from #2 ever since #1 started going to school all day.

When H came home and I asked about his big day, he described everything as either "fun" or "boring" (i.e., making patterns = fun; P.E. = boring, which he blamed on the lack of toys).  He was also a little concerned that a lot of the students in his class didn't call the teacher by her name.  "They kept saying 'yes ma'am.'  I just called her Mrs. P."

Other notable things about the day (according to Kiddo):

• The teacher read a story about a cat that changed colors.
• One of his classmates started talking about God while they were at lunch.
• Someone else's mom put a poem in their lunch box. (Seriously?  My lunch notes are competing with poetry?)
• Because of the rain, they watched Franklin cartoons instead of going to recess.  
• The bathrooms are pretty nice.  ("Except everyone calls them restrooms.  It's so weird!")

Move to Houston: We Made It!

After more than 1700 miles and 27 hours of driving over six days, we finally made it to Texas!  It was a fun and exhausting trip, totally worth the occasional crankiness (the sure fix being a game of newscaster -- wherein BG's only answer to any interview question was the word "happy"-- or a stop at a park or church parking lot for some run-around time) and a multitude of bad fast food (may I never eat at KFC again!).


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We initially checked into a hotel near our new neighborhood, but then became house-sitters for a week, after Brandon's coworker (who is also a relative of our friends) offered us his home and car.  We were more than happy to accept!

Brandon started work and I kept the kids occupied, while trying to accomplish all those last-minute house things that kept popping up.  I wanted to back out of the deal more than a few times, especially when our mortgage company called two days before closing and asked for documents that were not available to us.  Luckily, they found a solution around it, but I was looking at rental homes for a minute there.

But we did it!  We bought our first home!  The past week has been a blur of organized chaos as we've moved in, started unpacking, and seen a slew of repairmen and technicians come in and out of our home.  It's nice to have [so much!] space of our own, although I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it all.

At the same time, we're getting used to the suburbs and to this place called Texas.  It's hard for me to distinguish between the two, since we've never lived in either.  For example, the people in our neighborhood are always waving hello--is that a suburb thing or a Texas thing?  But I'm loving the darkness at night (no glaring high school street lights!) and the relative quiet (no fire station down the street!).  And I'm really loving the condiment section of the grocery store; the selection of salsa is topped only by the even larger selection of barbecue sauce.  I look forward to systematically trying them all.

Our area has a plethora of Tex-Mex and BBQ restaurants, donut and kolache places--all of which we are eager to try.  We haven't had any BBQ yet (I know, I know!), but it's fun to live in a state where the theft of especially large barbecues makes the evening news.  And after living on the east coast where there is a serious Mexican food void, we have happily been introducing the kids to Tex-Mex. Equally exciting, we have already eaten at two of the nearby Indian restaurants (with one more to go) and both were more than satisfactory.  I can't tell you how at ease that made me feel.  After all, any place that has good Indian food can't be too bad.

Move to Houston: Alligator Farm B&B

Ok, so it wasn't an alligator farm.  They just have a few alligators that live on the property.  Who come when you call their names.

"Come over here, Helen!"

I ran across the website for Wildlife Gardens while we were planning our trip, and sent Brandon the link as a joke.  As in, "Wow!  Look at this random B&B in the middle-of-nowhere Louisiana.  It has alligators!"  I should have known better.  As soon as I told Brandon that we would be able to hold and feed the alligators, he was sold.  In fact, aside from our night in Virginia Beach, it was the only thing we booked ahead of time.

After leaving New Orleans (where we stopped to see the zoo because we were ahead of schedule!), it was a lot of meandering in the swamp before we finally got to the outskirts of Gibson, LA where Wildlife Gardens is located.  To be honest, we were a little unsure about what to expect.

We were immediately greeted by several peacocks wandering around the property, shouting their hellos.  BG laughed and ran towards them whenever she saw them.

It was a short walk to our cabin, which sat on stilts above the swamp water.  Betty (our host) was kind enough to supply ample amounts of bug spray.  "Some B&B's put flowers in your room or chocolates on your pillow.  I give you bug spray."

Usually when I'm sleeping outside or camping in the woods, I have come to expect the complete quiet of the night while I'm trying to go to sleep.  That's not the case when you're sleeping in the bayou.  Those bugs and frogs (and whatever else we were hearing) were noisy!  We are definitely not used to bayou sounds.  However, the only bug we actually saw inside the cabin was a firefly that periodically blinked its light at us until we fell asleep.

The next morning, Betty and her husband Vernon fed us a great breakfast (the leftovers of which went to the peacocks), and then we hopped aboard Vernon's John Deere so we could hold some baby alligators.  Betty kept asking Kiddo if he wanted to hold one, which he did, but it was Brandon who was most excited.  He didn't want to give the little gator back.

Just as we were about to leave, a couple of Betty and Vernon's friends stopped by.  We ended up chatting for awhile and they said they would never want to live anywhere but there in the bayou.  "This is God's country," they said.  It is not exactly my idea of paradise, but we loved our time there just the same.

Move to Houston: Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum

This stop was specifically planned for Kiddo.  As soon as we stumbled upon the museum website while we were preparing for our trip, we knew we had to spend an afternoon there.  It's a five-year old boy's paradise!

Move to Houston: Great Smoky Mountain National Park

The next big stop on our trip was the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  I found a couple trails ahead of time to some waterfalls and they were well worth the walk!  After a few hours of hiking, and with Kiddo and I jogging most of the way back down, the kids were worn out just enough to be glad to get in the car again for even more driving.

Move to Houston: Virginia Beach

Packers and movers came and went, we spent a day or two in an empty apartment, and then it was our turn to leave, saying good-bye to the wonderful time spent in Arlington, VA.

But in order to prolong the fun, we decided to turn the move into one big road trip.  So here is the first post of a few to follow of the things we did on our way to Houston.

Since we had never been there before, or perhaps as a way just to delay the inevitable, we extended our road trip further east to Virginia Beach.  Along the way, we stopped in Williamsburg (another place we never visited) and had lunch with our good friends, David and Rachel, before continuing on our drive.

We were thrilled to finally get to Virginia Beach, but, as is apt to happen with us, it was rainy and cold.  We attempted the ocean anyway, and it was totally worth it.

We spent the rest of our time riding on our rented surrey bikes...

...playing on a beach playground...

...and enjoying our view.

For the remainder of our trip, we lamented about how we should have spent an extra day at Virginia Beach.  Here's hoping the TX beaches can compare.

Paws to Read Addendum

On a couple of our Paws to Read visits, I was asked if the kids could be video taped for publicity videos, etc.  The other day I was sent this link.
Kiddo is walking in the background at 2:25, but skip to 2:54 to see BG and me doing our thing.