Progress Report

From the kitchen door

Grill Station

Stairway to Heaven
(See those little square "stones" in the middle of each step?
They light up! This just makes me happy!)

From the lower patio

Bar (and Grill)

The big picture
(Kitchen door on the right, grill in the middle and lower patio on the left)

The front bed

Front walkway, leading to the garage

Today:

• I used a new formula of body scrub this morning to try to combat the ridiculous dry skin that this never-ending winter has made unbearable. It was a Vanilla Coconut Scrub (#5 on the list), that smelled divine and felt incredible on my skin. (I will just go ahead and count that as my Pin of the Week, even though it's been so long since I've done one, we might ought to call it Pin of the Month, or even more appropriate, Pin of the Quarter!)
• During breakfast, Clay asked me what a Binglebob was. When I told him I didn't know, he explained to me, as if I were a special kind of dense, that it is a fish. 
• I sent CC emails this morning, while assisting Max with some of his school work.
• I had an opportunity to leave the house without children for a few hours to attend a class about doTerra essential oils. I have been fascinated with essential oils for a while now and was thrilled to get to do this. I can't wait until my oils arrive and I can try them out!
• I didn't have lunch until 2:00. 
• The landscapers, who are absolutely transforming our property, said there was a chance they might finish the project ahead of schedule, and we could be relaxing on the completed patio within the next week or so!
• I was almost sideswiped by a wild turkey on my way to drop Ruth off at horse riding.
• We picked up Max's t-ball uniform, and he is super excited for his game on Saturday.
• I enjoyed some yummy Mexican food for dinner with the men of the family. Max's comment when we pulled into the parking lot: "You know what is so funny? That this is Mexican food, and it's not even in Mexico!"
• I had a delicious dessert (while everyone else had dinner) in Liberty Hill at the Dahlia Cafe, with Ruth, my mom and my cousin's sweet wife. 
• I left my baby girl with my mom for her first out-of-state trip without me. She and Nana are headed to NYC tomorrow, where they will meet up with Papa and have all kinds of amazing fun, I'm sure!
• The cows knocked our trashes over, which they do every Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, because that's when we take the trashes out for the weekly collection. But this time we outsmarted them with bungee cords. Ha!
• I ordered a tricorn hat for Weston for his half-birthday, because that is something he specifically wishes he owned and who am I to deny that kind of dream?

Best Day

Well, I don't normally do two posts in one day, but this day just requires it, because it was quite possibly the best day ever. It was the first day of spring, and our little part of the world celebrated by acting truly spring-like. I wore flip-flops today for the first time in months (even though I am badly in need of a pedicure). Our bluebonnets have come out of their shells and are starting to show off. Great progress is being made on our landscaping project. And, our palapas for our man-made, non-quite-finished, private "beach" arrived today, and that just pushed us over the edge of happiness. We popped the tops of some chilled Mojitos, turned on the ocean sounds app, pulled the grill around and had our first official patio party. I'm pretty sure this is what Heaven is like.

front retaining wall and back decorative stone wall

view from the bottom patio looking at the back of the house

back of the house, with the palapas peeking around the corner

The "Beach" in the back

retaining wall along kid's side of house

First lovelies of the season

Palapas!

enjoying our own little piece of paradise

In addition to the normal chaos this week:

MONDAY

• Our bedroom furniture finally arrived! The truck pulled up in front of our house at 8:30 pm and, after unloading and putting the bed together, the guys finally left just a few minutes after 11:00. We love it and are so proud to have grown-up furniture in our bedroom for the first time in our lives! (The furniture we had before was a combination of dressers and a nightstand my parents bought for me when I was a freshman in high school and a nightstand Jeff has had since he was about eight !)

TUESDAY

• It was Claycito's half-birthday! 2 ½--so unbelievable! He has recently discovered some Bob the Builder videos left over from Ruth's toddler years and has been completely enamored, so I searched online for Bob the Builder paraphernalia, which is apparently no longer very popular, and finally found a few videos packaged in what Clay calls a "lunch pack" and a construction zone play set. The truly awesome thing about the play set, and the thing I didn't notice before purchasing it, is that it speaks in a foreign language that we don't recognize. I guess Bob is still popular in some parts of the world! This doesn't bother Clay in the least. He loves his new Bob the Builder stuff so much. The big kids all also insisted on buying a little something for him with their own money. They are all so, so sweet!

• Max showed off his pitching arm by throwing a rock through a window at the church where we meet for CC. 
• Jeff left for an overnight business trip to Houston.

WEDNESDAY

• Clay wore underwear all day (except for nap time), including several hours away from the house, and only had one small accident. Dare I hope there is light at the end of this potty training tunnel?

THURSDAY

• The land clearing project we have had going on here for months finally wrapped up. Our land looks so amazing! Now, to get the actual landscaping done. 
• We dropped our truck off at the mechanic to get it up to snuff so we can go about selling in in the near future. 

FRIDAY

• I had an early meeting at a local coffee shop with the other CC directors from the Marble Falls campus.
• Jeff booked a flight to Bozeman, MT for next week to meet with a new client.
• The kids and I participated in a CC field trip to the Johnson City Zoo, which is a place the kids absolutely love.

• We called off school in the afternoon to head over to Aggieland. A game wasn't going to happen for us this season, but we've been dying to take the kids to Yell and show them around campus. We had dinner at Chicken Oil Company, which seems to be one of the few old school places still in business. Then we grabbed some FROYO, before heading over to our rented house for a pre-Yell nap. After our little rest, we joined the throngs at the soon-to-be renovated Kyle Field for the last Fightin' Texas Aggie Yell Practice of the season.

SATURDAY

• Weston had a playoff football game in Marble Falls, and I had an area CC director luncheon, both of which came up after we had planned our Aggieland weekend. Since it was too late to cancel the house reservation and get a refund when these activities came up, we decided to just let the crazy take over. So, we drove home after Yell, arriving home around 3:30 am, and then drove back to College Station after our obligations were met. Unfortunately, Weston's team did not advance to the next round of the playoffs, but he had so much fun this season and got a medal for being a semi-finalist, which helped to ease his disappointment somewhat. 

• We got back to A&M at half-time and were able to watch the rest of the game in the student center and then see the yell leaders get tossed in Fish Pond and participate in the Victory Yell after the Aggie win. 

• We had dinner in Bryan at Caffe Capri, another place Jeff and I enjoyed when we were students at A&M.

SUNDAY

• After a leisurely breakfast, we took the kids over to play at Research Park and then went to Freebird's for lunch. 
• After lunch, we decided to spend a little more time on campus before heading home. 

Labor Day Weekend

Friday

• Lunch at Gumbo's
• Real estate papers signed, making the sale of our house in Austin official
• Mega shopping trip to Sam's
• Movie Night

Saturday

• War waged on fire ants, after they invaded Max's bed in the middle of the night and bit him repeatedly on the chest and back
• Pedicure, haircut and a little shopping for Mandi
• First Aggie game of the season, and first Aggie victory
• Diet stuck to, even during multiple football games and the accompanying game day munchies
• Ruth's friend spent the afternoon with us
• Laundry washed

Sunday

• First Sunday potluck, also known as Weston's favorite church day of the month
• Naps
• Laundry folded and put away
• Last-minute prep for the first day of CC on Tuesday
• Potential landscaper here to take measurements
• Pinterest piddling 

It's been a wonderful blend of productive and relaxing. Happy Labor Day, everyone!

It's in the genes

Of all my children, Max carries the most DNA from my side of the family. He is almost the spitting image of my uncle, cousin and grandfather. But today, I saw myself in him more clearly than ever. It just so happened that I was on the phone, which, of course, triggered screaming from the ends of the earth. I finished up my phone conversation, but the screaming didn't subside. In fact, it grew louder and more hysterical by the minute. So, I poked my head out the front door to see if I could determine how severe the maiming was. I heard, rather than saw, poor Max, who was standing on a large rock on the front part of our property, screaming "SNAKE, SNAKE, SNAKE!" That's when I felt the hysteria start to rise inside of me as well. I kept it together long enough to get Max safely to the porch. But, as he gulped for breath and I tried to determine if he had been bitten (which, thankfully, he hadn't), I realized the snake-fearing genetics run deep.

However, I think Max recovered from the experience much more quickly than I did. And, he actually thought it was cool to look at the snake pictures online to see if we could figure out what kind it was, whereas those pictures made my skin crawl. My only consolation is that from his description, it appears not to have been a poisonous snake. At least that's what I'll be telling myself as I try to get some sleep tonight.

Proof Positive Prayer Works

While our house was still being built, and while I was huge pregnant with Clay, we were wandering around on the property and came across a fairly large rattlesnake. Trust me when I tell you you have never seen someone carrying so much extra weight move that quickly. For two weeks, snakes filled my dreams, and I would wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, crying and terrified. (I think I mentioned I was pregnant, which might be sufficient explanation for the sweating and crying, and maybe even the weird dreams). I began trying to convince Jeff we shouldn't move in, but he wouldn't be swayed. So, I began doing what every paranoid mother does when she's worried about something: combing the Internet for solutions and getting more freaked out. The reviews for all the rattlesnake-be-gone products were mostly terrible. And the only real natural predator was the roadrunner. So, I decided I would just buy myself a roadrunner. I mean, I had heard of people buying swans and geese and chickens online, so how different could roadrunners be?! But a web search brought up sites with huge red banners, stating the illegality of purchasing or catching roadrunners. I admit, I wondered if it would be worse for my children to be killed by rattlesnakes or to grow up with only occasional visits with their mother in prison. Ultimately, I decided to let go of my dream of owning a roadrunner (or rather a pair of roadrunners, because, in my research, I learned they mate for life), but I would look longingly at any I saw running around on some other lucky landowner's property. Instead, I decided to just ask the Lord to watch and protect my children even when I wasn't able to, and He confirmed in my heart that He was more than capable of doing that. And, just like that, the nightmares ended. I have almost stepped on two different rattlesnakes since we saw that first one and have gone into small degrees of cardiac arrest, but I have not forgotten the Lord's ability to watch and to protect. And, today, perhaps to reward me for not going criminal, He brought this friend to our yard:

I don't mind telling you I raised my hands to heaven and did a happy dance in my kitchen! I hope he (or she) and his (or her) mate will be very happy here and will feel free to kill any and all snakes for as long as they are able. I'm not usually much for birds, but I think this one is the most beautiful one I've ever seen!

This Week...

• The big boys attended Nana Camp, which included swimming, bowling, lazar tag, a play date, an overnight stay in Arlington, a Texas Rangers baseball game and probably a whole bunch of things I don't even know about. 
• We acquired a foosball table, which we measured not quite accurately and so punched a hole in the wall while trying to carry it up the stairs. 
• Wall repair.
• Ruth started a new job, working for Strongpages (Jeff's company), and she has done an amazing job.
• Ruth got to watch a bunch of movies the boys are not quite old enough for yet.
• Our tree trimmer has gotten mostly finished, and our property looks so much better.
• Our landscaper finally got back to us with some plans, and we are super-excited to move forward with that, hopefully in the near future. 
• The door that leads from the house to the garage was falling out of it's jamb, so we had someone here to repair that.
• I attended a CC conference in the morning and taught a training class in the afternoon for three days in Austin.
• The exterminator's rotation began, and we are really looking forward to fewer ants and scorpions around here.
• We are all packed up for a weekend with family, celebrating the imminent arrival of our niece/cousin.

Dream House Complete

We bought our land in July. In Texas. In the middle of a long drought. And, we thought it was just about the most beautiful property we had ever seen! A year and a half later, our house is finished, and we are settled nicely into it. I love everything about this house! But the land. Oh! The land! In March. After some glorious seasons of rain. The land has made this truly my dream house. These ten little acres are peppered with wildflowers and foliage in every shade: purple and yellow and pink and green. And, my personal favorite, blue! There is a beautiful blanket of bluebonnets lining my driveway, and leading visitors right up to my front door. I love it so much!! It's just what I've always wanted! And, I get to share it with the people who mean the most to me. Can life possibly get any better than this?!

Home, Sweet Home

A Texas Welcome

Twisted Oak Campout

300 Twisted Oak

As of today, Jeff and I are the proud owners of a beautiful 10-acre piece of paradise between Marble Falls and Horseshoe Bay! We are so very excited about this purchase and look forward to seeing what will become of it. We hope you will join us during the course of this new adventure, and we hope you will make plans now to come visit us soon!

We can gather wildflowers...

...climb trees

...play longhorns

...and take in the view.

On Again...And Off Again

Negotiations for the gas station were resumed today. But, not much progress was made. It didn't take long for us to realize that we weren't really getting anywhere with these people, because they think the value of something is what you paid for it (and what you lost in it) rather than what someone is willing to pay you for it. They are still talking our offer over, but we aren't very hopeful that they will accept. We are still exploring other options, so maybe something will work out.

Down, But Not Out

Well, our first attempt to buy a convenience store didn't work out for us. We terminated the contract this afternoon. Don't think, though, that we are going to give up on our "dream" so easily. We are already checking into other options. We'll keep you posted.