Springtime in Dallas

The weather has been pretty nice here. Some days are hot, some are humid, but there are plenty of nice days in the 70's. People are warning us about what it will be like here in the summer months, so we're trying to take advantage of these days. We take lots of walks and go to the park whenever we can.

    

    

Some Random Thoughts...

This may be a Derek-like post. Just a few thoughts and no pictures. =)  I'm enjoying a quiet morning today. I fought the pressure I put on myself to get the kids out to do something and decided we would spend the day at home. The girls are both tired (perhaps still adjusting back to our time zone along with daylight savings). Karis also may be getting sick -- all three kids were sick-free for about a week but sadly that short, long-awaited streak may be coming to an end. 

I've been spending the morning organizing and finding places for things that have yet to find their spot since they were unpacked months ago. I'm still trying to make our home the way I would like it to be. I'm still looking for things that are packed away somewhere, but at the same time slowly losing hope that they'll be found until we move and unpack again.  

It's been about a week since we returned from California. Our clothes are clean and put away. The refrigerator and freezer have been re-stocked. Karis returned to preschool and we enjoyed going to our church last Sunday. All that to say, life has resumed for us here in Texas. 

We've been here now for about 3 1/2 months. Each week I meet more and more people at church to where I now feel like I recognize a good number of people on Sundays. Derek and I are a part of a small group where, for the first time in over four years, we are not hosting at our home. We bring our kids and help pay for teenage babysitters at the house. I joined a women's small group in the morning where I have met some great ladies. I'm looking forward to meeting more people and getting to know a few people better. I'm so ready for the weather to warm up so we can spend more time outside and be done with this cold season. 

Needless to say, Derek is enjoying life back to normal with us all together at home. He's been busy at work preparing for all the Easter festivities our church has planned. It's a great time of year as we celebrate our risen Lord! 

This week, Kyle turns 10 months old and Makena turns 3! There will definitely be a couple more posts later this week.

45 plus days in Texas...

While that title could be referring to the high temperature as of late, it is not. The first month and a half has passed quickly here in Texas.

 Karis has adjusted quite well to the new kids and teachers at her new pre-school. I think she also likes that it is at daddy's office so on occasion we have driven together with just the two of us (compared to mommy hauling all the kids to drop off one).

 I have to admit that I underestimated the effort required to get the everyday life things squared away (auto insurance, inspection, and registration; utilities; finding doctor; pharmacy; barber; good motorcycle mechanic; etc.). In a misunderstanding with our landlord (changing name versus removing name), we lost electricity for a couple of hours during a cold spell while I was at a retreat. And then we went without gas appliances for 3 and a half days (namely furnace) because of the same. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

 January has been a month of sickness. First Karis with a 12-hr vomiting. Then Kyle had diarrhea and vomiting over a week's time. I had an upper respiratory infection coincident with Kyle's sickness. Then Lena was under the weather for about a week. Now I'm fighting the chills, weakness, and sinus infection. And Karis has the croup. Makena has been the only one to stay healthy.

 Otherwise, Texas has been great. I forgot how much time it takes to build new friendships. Glad that I have a couple of former co-workers on the church staff as well as a few good friends relatively close (30 minutes and another 2.5 hours). Then I have a niece and others about 4.5 hours away.

 This is Derek writing if you didn't notice the lack of photos to complement the text.

Recent Pics

Soon after Karis got better, Kyle caught the stomach flu. He is just getting better after battling it for about seven days. Derek got a sinus infection but is now better after a round of antibiotics. I now have a cold.  Good 'ole Makena is the only one who has stayed healthy through it all (tho today she sounds a little congested). 

I think the biggest adjustment for the kids so far is not being able to go outside to play. We've had to find other alternatives like Chik-fil-A, the mall's play area and our church's  indoor play structure. The other day we went to McDonald's. The kids loved the play structure that they had all to themselves on a rainy day.

The kids wanted to go back the next day. After running a couple errands, we had a picnic lunch in the car before going back to McDonald's (I couldn't feed my kids mystery nuggets two days in a row).  The girls thought a picnic in the van was the best thing ever!

We finally got a warm day last Friday so we headed to a park. It was huge and had lots of different stuff. The kids loved it all.  

  

  

On Tuesday, we were surprised to wake up to snow!  It snowed about an inch and then it melted away by the afternoon. The weather here is so crazy -- it's always changing!

After we dropped Karis off at preschool on that snowy day, the other two kiddos and I went to a grocery store. As we were walking to the van, Makena was calling out every place she saw snow. 

"Mommy, there's snow on the street." 

"Mommy, there's snow on the car." 

An older gentleman came out of the car and Makena said, "Mommy, there's snow on his head! There's snow on his head!" 

By this time, I was busy unloading the car and wasn't really paying attention to Makena. She kept repeating "There's snow on his head!"

I finally realized what she was saying and looked over to see a man with a short salt-and-pepper afro. He was just two parking spots away and definitely heard what Makena was saying. I was so embarrassed but as he walked away I was laughing so hard I could barely lift Makena out of the shopping cart. Sorry Sir, we're not from around here!  

A Long Weekend

Not a long holiday weekend, but a weekend where time seemed to pass very slowly. It started on Thursday night. After we put the kids down, Derek and I were downstairs and noticed that the furnace was blowing cold air. We thought it had to do with a fuse that was blown earlier and perhaps just the pilot light went out. We found out the next day that our gas had been turned off and it wouldn't get turned on until Monday (It's been a bit of a mess with our utilities at our new place. Our landlord had everything in her name and there's been confusion/miscommunication as to transferring vs. shutting off and dates of when it would happen).

On Friday, I thought three days without heat and hot water wouldn't be that bad. We're so spoiled with the comforts of living and a little roughin' it wouldnt' be so bad. We have portable heaters and we could go to a friend's house on Saturday to shower before church.  We spent the next three days being cold, especially in the mornings when it got down to 57 degrees downstairs, washing our hands and faces with frigid cold water and boiling water to wash dishes. Thankfully our stove/oven is electric and we were able to eat! If that was the worst of it, it wouldn't have been that bad...

On Friday night at about 11 pm, we heard Karis whine a little, cough and than cry. I ran up to her bedroom and when I opened the door I could smell what was going on. Karis had thrown up and she was struggling as she was still lying down and more was coming up. She had no idea what was happening. Derek took her to the bathroom and I tried to clean up the mess. I slept next to her that night and she ended up throwing up almost every hour until 7 o'clock. She did sleep from 4 to 7 which gave me time to run to Kyle's room and feed him and stay with him for an hour. Are you getting the idea of why this weekend felt so long??

The next day (Saturday) Karis was feeling a little better but she was wiped out. She ate a little throughout the day and thankfully kept everything down. She was on the couch pretty much the whole day, something she's never done before. When the girls get sick, they still eat and run around. I wiped down everything I could in the house and washed a bunch of toys with hopes that the other two wouldn't get sick too. I couldn't bear to watch another one go through what Karis did. Like most of us, she dreaded throwing up. She cried and screamed and tried to fight it. When she went to bed Saturday, she was so scared. She thought she was going to be throwing up all night again.

We stayed home from church on Sunday. The house was cold in the morning, but when it finally warmed up, Karis was up and about.  

By the afternoon, I couldn't take it anymore and I took a (very) cold shower and got out of my frumpy thick clothes I had been in all weekend. I put a little make-up on and went to a grocery store. It felt good to finally get out of the house. By Sunday evening, the girls were pretty rowdy as they had been in the house for three days straight!

But now it's Monday morning and the gentleman from the gas company just left. We now have hot water and warm air! I'm going to run a load of laundry, start the dishwasher and give the girls a bath.  I'm glad we made it through this weekend and soon it'll be just a distant memory!

Update on the Sisterhood

It's been awhile since I've talked about the girls' relationship with each other. I think it'll be neat for them when they get older to read about it so I hope to do it more regularly. Since we've been in Texas, they have definitely gotten closer to each other. We didn't have a lot of toys out when we first moved in so they basically just had each other to play with. The age gap seems to be shrinking as Makena is catching up in motor skills, speech and understanding. That definitely makes it more fun for Karis to play with her. 

Their favorite thing to play is "Mommy-Baby." It usually starts by Karis saying, "Let's play Mommy-Baby. I'm the baby. You be the Mommy." And then Makena will respond excitedly with "Yeah!" They make up all kinds of scenarios -- the "baby" cries or crawls around and the Mommy takes care of her or the baby will crawl up onto the loft and be scared and the Mommy will help her down. The best is when Karis tells me, "Being the Mommy is a lot of work." Yeah, you're telling me!  =)

When they're in their room, one person will close the door and whoever is out in the hallway has to say the magic words for the door to open. The magic words are "I love you, sissy!" Derek and I don't let the girls play with doors because there has been too many smashed fingers, but I let them play this game. How can I keep them from calling out, "I love you, sissy!" to each other.

I love when they call themselves best friends. When we first started going to our new church, Makena didn't like going to Sunday School. Thankfully, for half the class period they combine the two classes and play in the indoor play area. Karis will hold Makena's hand or put her arms around her as they walk through the hallway. Teachers tell me they always stick close to each other. Karis has told me that she worries about her in Sunday school. What a great big sis!

When Karis started preschool, it was obvious that Makena missed having Karis around the house. But to my surprise, Karis came home from preschool one day and told me she missed Makena. That surprised me because Karis loves going to preschool and her day is filled with all kinds of fun activities but she still thinks about her little sis. 

There are plenty of tattle-telling, unwillingness to share and an occasional "You're not my best friend anymore" but we won't talk about that right now. For the most part, they play well and enjoy being together. 

Missing Friends

I was with Makena as she was getting ready for her nap. While putting her pants on she said, "Mommy, I want Jessi ... and Jeremy ... and Aaron... and Austin (her cousins)... to come over after my nap." She stopped, looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said, "Please, Mommy." It's breaking my heart. I explain to her that they're too far away, but I wonder if she really understands.

We have a door full of Christmas photo cards taped onto it. The girls look at them every day and get excited to see photos of their new friends, but also mention those they miss from California. They seem to attach themselves quickly to the people they meet here and I wonder if they're trying to fill the void they're feeling in their hearts.

Our New Church Family

Before we left on our road trip, we thought the moving truck would arrive on the same day (Friday) or the day after we arrived. While we were on the road, Derek touched base with the moving company.  They told Derek  that our stuff wouldn't arrive at the house until Tuesday of the following week. The only other option was to have our stuff arrive earlier on Thursday. We took the Thursday option so we wouldn't have to be in an empty house for four days.  

Our executive pastor jumped in to help. He met with the realtor to give her a check and get the keys to the house. He spent all day at our house supervising the movers. We knew when we arrived that there would be a lot of things out of place. What we didn't realize was that there were several other people at our house as well that day, from other staff members to the director of the preschool (which is affiliated with the church). They bought and decorated a Christmas tree for us, left wrapped Christmas gifts for the kids, and filled the pantry with snacks, soup and canned vegetables. They also bought some cleaning supplies, Christmas kitchen towels and a candle. We were blown away by their generosity and thoughtfulness.  It was such a nice end to our long journey.  

Here is a photo of our Christmas tree after we added a few of our own ornaments.  

Shortly after we arrived, we've been having meals brought to our home. Our pastor's wife set up a sign-up for people to bring us dinner. We're having dinner bought to us every other day for three weeks so we can focus on unpacking. It's been a huge help not having to make dinner and clean the kitchen every night.  

The youth pastor also arranged for two high school seniors to come over to help me unpack the kitchen.  They were the sweetest girls and were so helpful. They came over for a couple hours on two different days and I'm happy to say that my kitchen is unpacked and functional. I wouldn't be able to say that if it weren't for them!

I am so thankful for all the help that we've been receiving. I'm hoping to one day do the same for a new family in town.  

It's Cold!

The temperature dropped yesterday and it is cold! It's been in the 30's overnight and it doesn't climb much past the 40's during the day. The girls don't get what I mean when I say, "It's cold outside," and they push back on putting jackets on.

Yesterday I took the girls to Target and Karis wore a dress with leggings and a light sweater (she just received the dress and has been wearing it every day). It's sleeveless and she kept asking if she could take the sweater off when we got to the store. I even tried to get the lady behind me in the returns line to tell Karis how people wear sweaters and jackets when it's cold. These California girls have some learning to do about what winter means.

Karis needed some new shoes so we bought her a pair at Target for her birthday. To no surprise, she picked the Hello Kitty ones. Those weren't my first choice but because they were for her birthday, I let her choose. As you can tell from the photo, she is quite pleased with them.