Large Texas creatures

Tonight we found a large spider near the front door and a large jackrabbit over the back fence. We left the jackrabbit alone, but the spider had a run in with the fly swatter. Too bad...

Rich the pirate

Rich was the pirate for the Summer Hummer drama this year, although most of you already know that. He did a great job and had had a great time.

Pictures

Some of you have been asking for pictures. The only current pictures I have from Texas are of the dogs, so I posted some of my favorites from the last two months. It took me about two hours to figure out how to do it, so enjoy them.

We found a huge insect in the pool yesterday. Not sure what it was. It was about three inches long and looked like a cockroach. So far the pool has also claimed a cicada (which I mailed to Sue for examination) and a praying mantis that had been bleached by the chlorine. Very interesting insects and very large indeed.

Love to all,
Laurie

July/August pictures

Aug 25 update

So here I am on my birthday (last week) sitting in my birthday chair in the back yard drinking a coffee that Sue Drinkard bought me. Life is good! Oh, and I've got my faithful black dog by my side.

Last Monday night I went to a meeting to join a local homeschool group. I have met many of the moms throughout the week via email and phone, so I feel like I'm getting more plugged in. I am going to a movie night tomorrow night with some of the mom's tomorrow night and then to a pool for swimming on Friday.

AWANA registration is this Wednesday night, and Rich and Austin start AWANA on Thursday night with the Jr. High group. I start my bible study Thursday morning. I am looking forward to getting back in God's Word.

Mandy and three of her kids are going to be here this weekend. Bethany has a soccer tournament here all weekend, so we will be busy!

Austin and Hailey have been playing with the 12 year old boy down the street all weekend. His name is Jordan. I'm glad they have someone to play with for now. He goes back to school tomorrow. We are starting Math this week, but will not begin the rest of school until we get back from our trip to Europe. We leave on Sept. 9 and return Sept. 24.

I'll try to remember to blog more often. I know some of you check daily and so I will give you more to read. :)

Saturday we went to Schlitterbahn, a fantastic water park about 1 1/2 hours from here and played all day (the people in Rich's Dupont office got us all tickets as a going away gift). On Sunday, we went to another church and checked it out. This one was much more upbeat and charismatic. Three people came up to us and introduced themselves (very friendly). Sunday night we went to see the famous Austin bats fly out from the Congress Ave. bridge (picture attached). Apparently, there are 1 1/2 million bats that fly out each night for food. It was a multi sensory experience (we could hear their wings, see hordes of them flying out and could smell them - smelled like cat urine). They were hard to see because it was so dark, but if you stood in the right spot you could see the flood coming out from underneath the bridge.

Last night, I went to sign up to be a member of a homeschool group in Round Rock and was amazed at all the activities that this group does. There are many science classes, sewing classes, keepers of the faith/home clubs, lego animation and robotics classes and PE classes to mention a few. I am encouraged.

Tomorrow Rich travels to Dallas to meet with the other half of his team and I have to go to AWANA leader training. My calendar is starting to fill in (not so many blank boxes anymore).

To update on a previous post, we moved some things around in the garage and I can finally put my van inside! The temperature outside today is 73 with 100% humidity (ick). I think I'll be staying in today. What I don't get is how there can be that much humidity and it's not even raining outside. Weird.

Monday update

We checked out a church on Sunday that was quite large. They have the AWANA program through High School, so this will be our AWANA church for sure. Still haven't decided if this will be our home church or if we are still looking as it is 20 minutes from the house.

I spent this morning driving all over this land trying to get my car registered and my driver's license and couldn't finish the task because I need signatures from Rich and he's out of town until Wednesday. Guess it will have to wait.

Austin met the 12 year old boy down the street named Jordan. He seems like a nice kid. We never see anyone outside. I think they all work and have little kids (according to the older neighbor who lives two houses down). Everyone goes to church around here. Kind of odd to have ALL your neighbors talking about their churches.

Here are my closest friends (Julie is missing) who kept me grounded while coordinating camp and a crazy move to Texas.

I love you all dearly...

Here I am unloading the car from our LONG trip and trying to figure out where to put everything!

Day 3 in Texas, First day of sanity

We have finally arrived! We've been here since Wednesday afternoon and have been busy finishing up the unpacking. We managed to get the garage half way done enough to park the van in it to discover that the van is too long to park in the space we have!

On our drive down from Olympia to Austin, which took 4 days, we crossed the 45th parallel (the halfway point between the North Pole and the Equator) and the Continental Divide (the midpoint between the northern part of the continent and the southern part of the continent). We drove through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. We saw two coyotes and one prairie dog run across the road in front of us and countless roadkill along the side of the road.

We stopped at Arches National Park in Utah and were all in awe at the beauty (including the two exhausted kids). We also stopped in Fort Sumner, New Mexico at the gravesite of Billy the Kid and the end of the Trail of Tears (do some history research to discover what that was if you don't know).

We will be exploring a new church tomorrow. The kids are not looking forward to that.

The family is on the way

Well, here I am in Texas. Still not accustom to the heat. it has been in the low 100's since I got here. I heard from Laurie this morning and she was near the Oregon/Idaho border. it will be really nice when she gets here...and the kids too! oh, and the dogs!

I have been working like a mad man to get as much unpacked before she gets here. I almost have the entire downstairs done and then I will do the bonus room. ugh. maybe I won't. this house doesn't have the usable space the other one did...even though this one is a little bigger. The garage is a nightmare. the packers did a terrible job packing, so we get to make a complaint. maybe this will be how we make our millions!! okay, you can stop pinching me now.

I will keep you updated when she calls.

Rich

Friday 8/1

Hello - In 24 hours I will be leaving the building. The dogs are really excited to be moving to Texas so they can catch scorpions with their bare teeth and eat them for a midday snack. Rich killed a scorpion that snuck into the kitchen. The movers have arrived and presently are unloading. The TV is unloaded already much to Rich's pleasure. Although the cable doesnt come until tomorrow afternoon. Rich should also have the computer set up tomorrow.

The kids and I will be arriving in Austin next Wednesday at 5pm. I will update my blog then and tell you all about our roadtrip.

Goodbye Olympia, it's been great.
love ya soooo much, I just want to kiss you. Laurie