A Monday in the Life

I have been wanting to do another “Day in the life” post for a while now, but I can never find a good day.  Ideally the day that I blog about would be full of interesting things and would be on a day where I was particularly productive or maybe even just a day where I was feeling especially creative and witty or especially a day when I am doing something particularly pious.  Odd that those days are so far and few between…

In the absence of a day like that, I guess that I will just have to blog about a very, very ordinary day.  If I really get my act together then maybe I will blog about every day this week in order to capture part of my last weeks in Russia. If anything it will at least help my insomniac mother get some shut eye.

5:45 AM: Wake up.  Its soooo bright outside this far north in the mornings during the summertime!  I want to go back to sleep… <roll over and conveniently forget that I had planned to get up and work out at 6 this morning.>

6:05 AM: Hear a little voice calling out “Mama, mama” from her room.  Ummm… no way is my little preschooler getting up at 6.  I get up and gently tell her its not time to get up yet and aim her back for her bed; spend a few half asleep minutes looking for her toddle alarm clock <Wonder why I have not set that darn thing up since we got back yet…>. Give up and head back to my bed to snuggle with Nick.

6:30 AM: Get up.  If I am going to do this stupid work out thing, I better do it. Its just that snuggling’s my favorite thing…  But I get up – its painful.  Get dressed. Put on Tracy Anderson.  OMGoodness.  I attempt to bounce, jump, kick and pretend that I have any semblance of rhythm or grace or inherent dance ability; try, try, try to internalize her advice not to be embarrassed and believe that one day I will get it… that is until my half asleep husband stumbles into the living room.  “Don’t look at me!” I shriek, only halfway joking, as he turns around and high tails it back to our bedroom.

7 AM: Head to Isla’s room and quietly open the gate, thank goodness she fell back asleep.  Turn to our bedroom to find Nick and Gemma snuggling.  I pick up my sweet baby and start to nurse her and ask Nick about his day.  We chat and then he goes to the bathroom to shower and get ready.  Isla comes in to find me in the glider nursing Gemma.  She promptly returns to her room to get as many books as she can carry and then asks me to read.  I happily oblige her.  I love moments like these, snuggling my two babies, meeting their needs – one for food, one for attention.

7:30: Its time to make breakfast!!!! I refuse Isla’s request for a 6th book, and change Gemma’s diaper.  I move to our living/kitchen area and lay Gemma down on a blanket on the floor.  Isla wants to help me make our breakfast smoothies.  It actually goes ok, but I keep having to stop to go and soothe Gemma who doesn’t like being left out. <I mentally wish that I had a baby chair for her, but they are all in the states and we can do without for 5 more weeks.>  Finally I ask Isla if she can go and pat Gemma’s back since I need to get this darn smoothie done before Nick comes out.  Oh LORDY, that was a mistake.  Isla has shown great initiative and turned Gemma over onto her back (not what I asked) and is attempting to sit Gemma up all the way.  Not being strong enough, Gemma falls over right smack onto the side of her little head.  Of course she isn’t hurt, just a little unhappy. I cuddle the baby, and we take her back to the master bedroom so Daddy can hold her. Thankfully that helps me finish the smoothie in 2 minutes.

8 AM: We finish eating our smoothies and Nick asks me about the workout and what did I think.  Teases me (of course) and we figure out lunch plans.  Finally we tell him we love him, kiss him and he heads out the door and off to work.  I set Isla up in Independent Playtime/Room Time for an hour or so while I go and take a bath and get ready.  I want to clean the kitchen or make the bed, but I need to pay some bills and return some emails first.  Occasionally Isla calls me from her room to help her with something.  I have just started cleaning the kitchen when the timer goes off and Isla wants out.

9:30: Independent Playtime is over and although I want to clean the kitchen, Free Play is NOT what Isla wants to do.  At first I resist, my dirty kitchen countertops nagging at my conscience, however I eventually succumb to her adorableness.  We play with her Noah’s Ark set and I tell her the story of the ark and get out several of her children’s bibles and read the ark story in them.  We also get out her counting cards and work on counting exercises – she is getting sooo good at counting!  I am so proud.  Finally, even though she protests, I tell her I need to go and check the clock because its almost time to get Gemma up.

10:30 AM: WHAT??? It’s 10:30, I was supposed to wake Gemma up half an hour ago!  I wake her up and feed her in the living room while Isla plays with her easel and reusable stickers. Somewhere in there Gemma has a blowout all over me, her blanket and of course her clothes so I clean that up.  Those darn reusable stickers are NOT sticking, so Isla and I head over the kitchen to rinse them in soapy water since that is supposed to help them stick again and realize that I still have NOT finished cleaning up the kitchen.  Gemma is really fussy so instead of cleaning up; I opt to sit and hold her and cuddle her instead.  Win-win.  She is really the sweetest baby.  Isla continues to play with her easel and reusable stickers.

11:30 AM: It’s lunch already?  Gemma’s ready for her nap, so I put her down.  I take stock of our kitchen and decide on grilled cheese and prunes for Isla.  Awesome combination.  I say that I am doing the clean out the pantry exercise, but really its Isla that is cleaning out the pantry. Its nice to have a toddler that does not have an ounce of food snobbery in her. Somewhere in there I finally finished getting the kitchen cleaned up, only to have it get dirty again.

12 PM: Nick calls and we discuss the water delivery, and him stopping by Lenta for diapers and wipes on his way back from the work site.  He offers to do all the grocery shopping there, I waiver, wanting to be a strong, productive woman, but the siren song of no trip to the Russian supermarket with a busy three year old and a baby strapped to my chest is just too great.  I give in and tell him I’ll send him a list by 3:30 PM.

12:15 PM:  I hang up the phone and change my mind.  No, we will go when Gemma gets up! Nick works too hard to have to be in charge of all of the grocery shopping too.  Isla wants all of my attention, as usual, but I need to get a few things done, so I make her an offer she can’t refuse – I say we can put on the TV for her to watch.  Of course she accepts the TV, and I pop in Mega Mind.  I sneak into the master bedroom and make the bed without waking up Gemma and come back out to clean up the living room and kitchen. Then I get out the flax seed that I have been needing to grind up and get that done.  I organize a few play dates and respond to a friend’s request to get together and text my friend Li and offer some of my ground flax seed to her.

1:00 PM: I wake up Gemma, nurse her.  The water shows up without the warning call that I had been told I would receive.  Thank goodness I was home because we are completely out of water and otherwise they probably wouldn’t come back until tomorrow. Gather up our stuff and make it out the door by 1:45.

2:00 PM: The girls and I walk to Tabriz sans stroller.  This is a bold move on my part.  We are nearing Isla’s nap time and she is not a walker; I’m a little proud of myself for living on the edge.  Since we are carrying everything home I shop for only the bare necessities.  Isla runs willy nilly all over the store, but really does try to listen when I correct her or give her a direct command.  She is sooo busy.  She needs something to capture her attention at all times or she wonders and starts to touch and grab!  We walk up to the cashier and Isla helps me put the food on the conveyor belt.  I go to reach for my wallet and realize that I never put it back in my bag after I bought the water!!! Oh no.  Oh no!  Completely embarrassed I inform the cashier in Russian that I cannot pay and offer to take the stuff back to the shelves.  She’s clearly not happy, but also not rude about it either.  I leave the store – dignity in shreds and my girls and I all walk home.  Its going to be a couple of days before I will be able to go back in the store. Pride goeth before fall.

2:30 PM: Get back home and put the girls down for their nap.  Gemma wakes up after a short nap and fusses off an on for the next half hour.  I blog and only get up to 1:00 PM!  Seriously, why does blogging take me so long?  I can’t believe I didn’t even make it up to the present at that moment time. I also email my expanded grocery list to Nick, who now has to do all of the grocery shopping at Lenta .

3:30 PM: My good friend Li stops by for the flax seed.  She’s expecting her first child and we chat about child related stuff.  I bring out Gemma a little early since she’s clearly not interested in sleep and I realize she’s hungry… growth spurt??? I feed her. Isla wakes up and I snuggle her awake while we talk some more.  This would be the only time that my busy little girl is in the mood to snuggle and I take full advantage. We keep chatting, Gemma has another blow out… what’s with this girl?

4:30 PM: I start to cook the rice for dinner.  Li is Chinese, and not to be cliché or stereotype, but she actually knows a lot about cooking rice (for real).  She comments on my old school style of cooking rice and says it looks “scary” and offers her rice cooker. I accept.  We decide to do a challenge to figure out which rice turns out better.

5:00 PM: Nick is home and I start dinner.  We chat with Li about the new Chinese food restaurant in town; Isla is being pretty naughty, continuously interrupting and being loud (I know she wants attention but I cannot always have my attention on her) so she gets sent to Independent Play time (this is not a punishment).  I am sooo glad that I started IP.  It comes in really handy at times, especially when we have company over. Without it I would probably get frustrated at not being able to carry on an adult conversation and Isla would be disciplined.  This way I just have to kindly announce its time for Independent Playtime and she happily follows since she’s used to it and I get to talk in peace!  Li leaves and we put Gemma down for a cat nap.

5:30 PM: Gemma wakes up HUNGRY.  That’s an hour and a half early so now I know it’s a growth spurt.  Nick holds her off with a binky for 10 minutes just because I am smack dab in the middle of making dinner (Cuban black beans – yum, yum) and I can’t stop until I get all of the ingredients together and simmering.  Finally I nurse Gemma; Nick plays with Isla and a little stencil toy she got in a chocolate egg.  We sit down to eat finally.

6:30 PM: Bath, lotion and massage time, bed time.  It takes a while.  Its fun but tiring.

7:45 PM: Nick and I clean up the kitchen. Gemma wakes up, I nurse her, she gets put back to bed again.  Isla keeps coming to door with requests trying to delay sleep .  We work on taxes and pull together some documents for the house.  I read a blog or two.

9:00 PM: Finally it seems that all kids are asleep.  Nick puts on the Mentalist, which he loves, I’m like whatever about that show so I sit down to finish this blog post. Whoops!  Spoke too soon. Gemma is awake and we take turns trying to put her to sleep again; I nurse her again.  She’s clearly tired, but just struggling.  Bless her heart.  This is not like her. I admit that I am a little annoyed since I prefer my evenings sans children, but she still gets loved on because she’s so darn cute.  Nick finishes the Mentalist and I go to put on our favorite show, only to find out its not working. Boo.  We bring out Gemma since she’s so fussy and just wants to be held.

10:00 PM: Gemma falls asleep in Nick’s arms while I blog . I suspect we will watch a little more TV and then off to bed!

Phew, that took a long time.  Maybe I won’t do that again tomorrow or ever again!  I just don’t know how to be succinct when I blog and I feel fairly certain that only my mom will read this whole thing!

Locked In

Phewwwww!!! We are done with negotiations on the house including inspection and seller required repairs, so barring a catastrophe, we should be able to close on our house on July 1st.  Now I feel like I can show you a little bit more of the house…

Here’s a peek at Isla’s room.

Oh but here’s the best part of Isla’s room…

She’s going to have so much fun up there in her reading loft.

And my favorite part of the house…

My dreamy laundry room.  Not too shabby considering that this has been my laundry room (and master bath and Isla’s bath) the past two years…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sad to go, but excited about new beginnings in Midland, and especially our house!  There are little things that keep popping up about it that I realize that I have always wanted in a house that feel like sweet little presents from above.  They were not on my must-have list – which is the short list of criteria we used – so I wasn’t looking for them, and now I realize this house has them!

Right now, I’m trying to clean out and give away whatever I can.  I doing the “cook what’s in your pantry” exercise and it is really a fun challenge.  I wish that I had done it sooner.

I am also getting started on inventorying our house and spending as many precious minutes with friends as I possibly can.  We leave Russia at the end of June.  I almost can’t believe it.

Greetings from Paris!

Just kidding!  We are in Moscow, and its 2:30 in the morning.

First there was all of my thyroid issues and I needed to be in the states for those, and then we found out a few weeks ago that if we were going to fit in a house hunting trip to Midland, then we needed to do it before we returned to Russia so we made the decision to cancel Paris.  I have always wanted to see Paris (and the trip I took with my family when I was five doesn’t count!), but we made right decision.  Maybe sometime in the future!

After my thyroid biopsy last week, we immediately got in the car and drove up to Midland with an overnight stop at Nick’s parents in Temple.  It was a beautiful drive through the hill country, and I thoroughly enjoyed it… when I wasn’t glued to the Zillow app on my iPhone that is! I love Texas.

So, I knew the Midland house market was hot right now… what I didn’t realize was just how hot!  I thought that most houses were on the market for a few weeks and then gone.  NO.  Think California in the early 2000s!  Houses are coming on the market and gone in a day.  Tuesday my realtor sent me a list of available homes.  Wednesday I sent her a list of what I wanted to see.  Thursday morning when we actually went to go an look houses half of them were already under contract! One contender house we looked at at1 PM was gone by the time we drove by it again at 7 PM.  I kid you not, but half of the four bedrooms we looked at were not true four bedrooms.  They were trying to pass off closetless or doorless rooms as the fourth bedroom.

When we got into Midland we went and drove around the neighborhoods of the houses I really liked and I LOVED them, one house and neighborhood in particular. Of course that house was gone by Thursday after having been on the market a whopping two days.  Wednesday night I went to sleep with a smile on my lips, by Thursday night I was up tossing and turning over the houses we were finding and I just couldn’t sleep trying to decide whether or not to expand our budget, which meant a mortgage (sigh) or just wait, which had the potential to be very costly since the rental market is just as hot.  We could have rented a place to the tune of $3k a month if we wanted to, but we wanted to avoid that if possible.

Thursday night a house came on the market that looked pretty good so we scheduled to go and see at noon on Friday.  I loved it!  It had a pool, was close to a park, and I loved the way it had been renovated – Spanish/Southwest style with a lot of Saltillo tile and bright colors.  We really wanted to buy a renovated older home since newer homes are super high per square foot.  Nick forbade me from buying anything I would want to make changes to since it doesn’t make sense for us financially should the Midland market bubble burst.

Anyway, after seeing the house we decided to put an offer in on it, only to learn that there were TWO other CASH offers!  We decided to put in $7500 over asking pricing, since even with that we felt we were getting a good deal compared to what we had been seeing… guess what?  We didn’t get the house!  Can  you imagine putting your house on the market and have THREE good offers, all over asking and two of them cash all within the first day?  I would love to be in that position one day.  I never thought I would offer over asking on a house, let alone not get that house!

Anyway, we went back to our second and third options, and after comparing cost per square foot, it made the most sense for us to go with our second option.  I absolutely love it and I love the neighborhood, and there are so many young kids on our street.  It was just more than I wanted to spend, although still not a budget buster. I guess being mortgage free will just have to wait until another city… :/. We still haven’t closed on it, so something could fall through, but for now, this should be our future home! We close when we repatriate. Nick told me not to jinx us, so I had to add the disclaimer . I do not want to house hunt in that market again.

I really should have known that this was supposed to be our home when we drove up and saw this on our curb…

Methinks it was meant to be! I had seen a lot of house numbers with Texas Tech on them, and one UT, but this was the one and only I saw with Texas A&M.

Anyway, I present to you our new home in Midland!  I stole the pictures from the listing.  Random note, all of the homes in Midland have alleyway access… isn’t that weird?  I like it thought because it means no cars on the street!

We have a fourth bedroom so we’re hoping for lots of visitors!!!  I will post pictures of the interior as we get them ready and set up.

The best part is the neighborhood.  It has a pool, splash pad (the only one in Midland as far as I can tell), a park with a big walking trail, and two ponds with a stream that connects them.  You can fish in the pond, feed the koi fish and also the ducks!  I had hoped to be near a duck pond, so this is just so delightful.  Isla is going to have a blast!

I am really looking forward to getting in and getting settled!  But first, Russia and the good bye and packing parts of the move.  I hate those parts, especially the good buy part .

Life is Cystful…

So, what’s the difference between a Russian optimist and Russian pessimist?

A Russian pessimist says “Why, things just can’t get any worse…”

A Russian optimists says “Sure they can!”

You would have thought that between Nick’s appendectomy, my sickness earlier, and Gemma’s hospitalization that we would have used up our bad vibrations quota for the year… but apparently we have not. I haven’t blogged in a month because life has been hazelnuts!

I didn’t mention this before, but when Gemma was hospitalized for her virus/possible urinary tract infection they did an ultrasound of her kidneys.  While they were there, they found some large cysts on her ovaries, and at least one was close to the size the required surgery.  Apparently they don’t have enough data on babies Gemma’s age to know what is normal or what isn’t, so they didn’t know if it would pass as the birth hormones left her or if she needed treatment.  New born babies still have a lot of their mother’s hormones for weeks after birth, even little boys, and they thought that the cysts might be caused by that.  They just didn’t know!

Anyway, the plan was just to wait a little bit and then do another ultrasound to see if the cysts went down or away.  So a few weeks ago, I got my sweet little princess up at 5:30 AM to take her to one of the Texas Children’s branches in the Woodlands for an ultrasound on her ovaries, and also to recheck her kidneys.

My sweet, sweet baby. I hate seeing her in hospital beds, She just looks so tiny and so vulnerable. I can’t believe how much I love her.

Anyway it took about two hours, because they needed her kidneys to be full and we kept missing the right window, but the end result was good news!  Her ovaries, and also her kidneys are perfectly fine. Thank the Lord, there is nothing worse than thinking something is wrong with your child. Nothing.

Then there was me!  A few weeks ago I was having lunch with my Aunt and Uncle and I went to rub my neck and I felt a weird lump.  I had my mom check it, and sure enough there was lump on my neck in the region of my thyroid.  I knew that I had had an abnormal reading on my thyroid when I went in for a physical a few weeks earlier, and I know two people, both of them nursing mothers who had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the past six months.

I got on it immediately, I called my OB who referred me to my GP who ordered an ultrasound on my neck.  It came back with four large nodules – three cysts and one mass.  I was then referred to an endocrinologist.  He seemed very concerned and ordered a biopsy on the nodules.

It took them a while to get back to me on the biopsy, and I admit that that frustrated me.  I could understand if took a while for them to get me in, but to schedule the biopsy it took them three days to call back, even after they had said they would rush.  They knew I was trying to get back to Russia as quickly as possible.

I went to lunch with a friend who had had thyroid cancer, and she recommended her endocrinologist who had experience working with out of country patients and tended to move quickly.  She called and got us an appointment, and we did some research.  Apparently he is extremely well respected, and also rumor has it, is the endocrinologist of a certain Houston based former US president.

We went to the appointment, and my doctor was super nice… still we had a moment where we wondered if we could trust a doctor that had this hanging on his wall…

Anyway, he was very competent and also a total and complete goober.  My kind of doctor! We really liked him and we felt that we could trust his credentials better than my previous doctor.  Also he sent us to a center that specializes in ENT surgeries for my biopsy and we felt that we could better trust not getting a false negative from there over the place that the other doctor was going to send us to.  My friend who recommended this doctor had had a false negative and we had some fear of the same thing a happening to me.

So, we all have our quirks… one of my quirks is that I ABOSLUTELY HATE and it MAKES MY BLOOD RUN COLD to have someone touch my neck.  I wanted to ask for a relaxant or something, but it would have meant pumping and dumping for a day, which I didn’t want to do.  Nick said “I can’t believe this is happening to you of all people… I guess its just time for you to face your fears head on.”

I went in, and the surgeon was very nice, and really put me at ease. He wanted to do everything possible so that I could “get back to mothering.” That was nice to hear as a SAHM. I felt like he didn’t have a negative view of the fact that I “just spend all day at home with my kids” that I get from so many other people who ask what I do. As hard as I try not to care, sometimes it makes me feel a little small.

The worst part was when he numbed my neck.  Goodness, I was sweating and I was shaking and squeezing my hands, but I got through it.  The biopsy was not that bad since I was mostly numb, but it did have a few painful moments.  They had to redo one a few times.

Thankfully they were able to do a preliminary review of the samples right then and there, and they came back NO for cancer!  They still need to finalize the test and run the report, but for now everything looks fine.

Super huge major relief!

After the biopsy it looked like I had been attacked by vampires.  One of my best friends Jessy said “Thank goodness it was catch and release!” HA! We went to breakfast as Le Peep to celebrate before we headed back to the Thistle Patch.

Anyway, now of course I feel silly since everything came back normal, but we were very scared and concerned.  It is very prevalent in my age group and apparently these things tend to surface around pregnancy and childbirth due to all of the hormones going through your body.  We do still need to monitor it, but for now, everything looks good!

Nick kept telling me to “stop faking cancer to get out of going to Midland!” HA! I love how he can keep me laughing at any time.

I am so thankful for all of the support that my friends and family showed me during this time.  I am so, absurdly ridiculously blessed.  The tagline of my blog used to read “But then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.” I do feel a little bit like I was born under a lucky star. I have done so little to deserve what I have.

Also, we have had a lot of bad puns on this blog over the years, but this one may be the worst… which means its my favorite of all times ever.

Also, also I have used the word hormones on the blog way more times than I ever thought I would.  I hope that I have no reason to use it ever again!

Back to Reality

I am really excited about our move to back to the USA, really excited.  I had hoped for Houston or Covington, and although I may have had my moments where I felt like I was being dragged kicking and screaming to Midland, I do feel as though that is where God wants us.  I would have supported Nick in another overseas assignment, but this past year has really done me in, and I am so thankful that this is how things turned out.  I would love to stay in the states until at least, God willing, our next and probably last baby is born (although that might change, the more babies I have, the more I want!!!!).  Things are just so easy in the USA and so kid friendly, and we have been wrung through the wringer (or is it rung through the ringer?) the past months.  So I have been so happy that our lives should be easy and simple over the next few years…

That is I was happy until I started to really process what returning to the USA meant.  I sat down to make out a USA budget after two years of not really having a budget and I realized that we have been ridiculously spoiled.  No bills, no car, no mortgage, extra money, and dream vacations, Nick will get less than half of the time off… ouch!  We need to buy a house, a car, a washer and dryer, probably a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner… the list goes on and on.  I was reading an expat blog that I follow about a fancy vacation, and I started to really miss the fantasy of living overseas and completely forgot about the difficulties.  I always say that people from the Woodlands, TX don’t really live in the real world, but actually after living overseas, I realized that Americans don’t really live in the real world. We have things so easy compared to almost everyone else (thank you capitalism and individual liberty, I love you).  But actually the people who really, really don’t live in the real world are international expats!  Life is pretty cushy, even if it is harder is some ways.

And I’m already missing that cushy life.  How quickly I forget how hard and frustrating and lonely and isolating it could be.  Plus we had to travel without Nick much more than I would have liked.  Definitely, moving back to the states, even if it wasn’t exactly where I wanted to be, is the right choice. I just need to not forget it!

Here are some things I am really, really looking forward to about being back in the USA (imagine an exclamation point after every single bullet)!

• Being back in Texas! Yes, I can live anywhere and dearly love other places, especially Louisiana, but being a Texan is a huge part of my identity and I get so homesick when I have been away too long.
• Being closer to family. Its still pretty far, but closer than Russia.
• Buying our own home. I am excited, even though prices are ridiculous.  We should be able to pay cash for an older home, which will be so exciting.  We have been working for that since we received Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover a year after we were married.
• Have a yard for Isla and Gemma to play in. I would love to get them (and Nick) a trampoline and maybe a sandbox, that is if our yard is not already a sandbox…
• Getting our own furniture back, and I am going to redo our master bedroom.  I’m pretty excited about that… and also maybe, maybe having a playroom.
• Chick-Fil-A!!!! Love chicken biscuits, the kid friendly menu and the playground at every facility.  I have such an appreciation for fast food playgrounds now… indoor playgrounds are wonderful creations.
• A lot of updated parks to take the girls to, Midland has a lot of great parks.  I checked them all out on their parks and recreation website.
• HEB – yep, there everything is better .  I have missed US grocery stores so much, especially that one.
• Cooking in the USA, and having access to every ingredient I need.  It will be so much easier to work on our “Eat to Live” lifestyle change.  We have been making better food choices permanently since we read it last year, but we would like to transition even more, and it will be so much easier in the states.
• Getting Isla into a permanent MDO program and signing her up for swim lessons.  She will love it!  The local YMCA also has baby swim lessons in the evening and Nick wants to take Gemma, which is so cool.
• Being able to explore Texas more.

I admit that I am not excited about finding another church and making new friends that we will inevitably leave.  I am getting tired of moving to towns, making wonderful, life long friends and then just leaving them. I don’t know if becoming a mother and wanting stability for my children is what changed me, but I am tired of leaving my sweet friends. The reasons that I have been down on Midland are necessarily Midland’s fault, although I do not like the desert and its remoteness, plus the expensive housing.  I am sure it’s a nice town and I love small towns. I just wanted familiar for a few years, but I knew as soon as Midland came up that we would be accepting the offer.  I know God wants us there, and what’s more, I think He is going to greatly bless us there… I guess I just like to be in control.

BUT, I should know better! Isn’t it our blog tagline “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”?   He has determined our steps, and I am really looking forward to this move!

Love,
Stori

Ps. Of course the year after the Aggies moved to the SEC we had to move farther west we probably won’t make any Aggie games… grrrr.  I will try to get over that one.

Pps.  It is wrung through the wringer.

Tuesday Tidbits

It’s the return of the Tuesday Tidbits!  Its been a while, but today was one of those Mommy-needs-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-for-dinner days, and so I am taking some ME-TIME to do one of my favorite things – blog!  I had big plans to be productive after the girls were in bed, but I am doing this just because I want to, and then I am going to bed!

• So, its looking like this little cutie may have inherited her daddy’s dimples. I am a little bit giddy about this… just a little. <BIG GIANT MOMMY GRIN>
• Also, little Dimples slept an 8 hour stretch last night .  It is ok to hate me… that’s just ridiculous for a five week old.
• Today was my first day flying solo with both girls.  I dropped Isla off at MDO, and took Gemma to the Doctor.  Then I picked up Isla with Gemma in tow and attempted my first errand at the post office.  I completed my task successfully, and I am feeling quite brave and keen to do something else with both of them!
• I finally ordered what I thought would be the perfect double stroller for our family, the Joovy Caboose Ultralight… it came in the other day and I had been itching to try it out.
• I tested it at the Post Office, and it turns out that at Isla’s age, I should have consulted my little rider because this pretty much sums up her reaction to it…
• Smart girl, she knows when she is getting the short end of the stick! Apparently she wants a full seat with a full recline.  I am going to try to get her on board with this one, but if it doesn’t work, I may be in the market for yet another stroller.  As much as I love strollers, I am not happy about this… it is getting embarrassing the number of strollers I have. I could sell some, but I have a hard time letting them go… I love them.
• OMGoodness, Isla was horrible today!  She was so bad – happy and smiley but BAD.  Except she wasn’t really happy .  Bless her heart, she is missing her daddy and asks about him constantly.  She is just acting out.  One thing that I absolutely feel very passionate about is limiting her time away from Nick.  We have never had to do more than 3 weeks apart while overseas, but even that length is too long.  That is one thing I will not miss about being an expat!
• During Nick’s job transition he had the option of two very good positions that involved either a lot of travel (25%+) or were rotational (14 and 14).  We passed on them and now I am confident that we made the right decision – these girls need their daddy.  Midland was the right choice.
• Oh man, speaking of Midland, I am getting so depressed about house hunting.  They are in the middle of a housing bubble.  Its an oil boom town so prices rise and fall with the price of oil.  I looked at house I liked that sold in August of 2012, it has just been relisted at $43,000 higher than it JUST SOLD 7 months ago!!! We are always a day late and a dollar short.  And I just know the bubble will burst just when it comes time for us to move again… I do not want to lose money on another house like we did in Covington.  We work too hard for that. 
• Isla experienced her first Texas thunderstorm today.  She said is scared her and asked me to turn it off… bless her heart, I told her I’d try and it seemed to really comfort her. Of course it started up right at bedtime so it took her forever to fall asleep, this after a day of being rotten and also fighting her nap – she is the Evander Holyfield of nap fighting.  Me thinks we are in for another tough day tomorrow .
• I love saying “my girls” and “the girls”.  I always thought that if I had all of one gender, it would be all boys.  I am still a little bit stunned that I have TWO GIRLS!  Of course we aren’t done yet, but I absolutely love having two adorable girlies.  They make me so happy.
• And now as a mother of girls, I feel like I need to really figure out how to do hair.  I hate doing hair.  I always wear my “wild and wooly” hair back or up.  Every attempt to figure out how to style it in the past has lasted about 10 minutes before I got bored and went off to read a book.  But for Isla and Gemma’s sake, I am making an honest effort. 
• My two attempts at doing Isla’s hair have been embarrassing and only made it look worse. Basically at this point I am begging for anyone to direct me towards some hair styling resources, like a good website or something.  If a woman’s hair is her glory, then I want to make sure that my girls can at least wear their hair down without shame.
• Also, I think that’s why I am so obsessed with bows on babies.  It’s a pretty hair accessory and so adorable, and best of all, easy. I am so frustrated with myself for leaving most of my bows in Russia.  I was so convinced Gemma was a boy!
• I have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism.  Its helping me lose the baby weight faster, but it is also making me even more scatterbrained.  Just what I needed.
• Do I use too many exclamation points when I blog?

Okey dokey, this tired, scatterbrained, discombobulated mom is going to bed. God bless and good night!

Welcome to the Thistle Patch

First of all... someone got an iPhone today!   I am so excited to have this!  In the past two years I have bought two small cameras so that I could take everyday pictures without needing to pull out our big camera, both of which broke (ok, one I may have put through the washing machine...).  I finally gave up on them, and I am so happy to have a quick, easy way to take pictures of my kiddos.  Not to mention all of the other great things that you can do with a smart phone- like GPS... thank goodness for the navigation system.

Here is the first picture taken on my new iPhone!  Our little celebutot promptly squelched all of my mamarazzi dreams with her "No mom, stop.  I don't want to take pictures!" Sigh.

Anyway, today I want to share one of my favorite places in the entire world, my parents home, also known as "The Thistle Patch."  This is where I live when I'm not in Russia, and where I have been for most of the past 2+ months.

First of all, I love the name!  Its a pun on my maiden name and also named after my dad.  My dad is a former marine and also a fightin' Texas Aggie and member of the Corp of Cadets at Texas aTm.  As a fish in the Corp, he was dubbed "Thistle" by his buddies, and the name has stuck ever since (and so have his buddies, who subsequently became my "uncles" - dubbed with their own nicknames, Buzz, Duck and Steelie). 

I love that its a nod to the "Oil Patch" the industry where my dad has worked his entire career. Also, The Thistle Patch is on 36 acres in Magnolia, TX; just north of Houston. I think 36 acres is a lot, Nick who grew up in south Texas disagrees, but that's ok... it might not be ranch material, but that just makes the "Patch" part all the more perfect and appropriate.

So come on in...! 

This is the first "house" that my parents built out here, we call it the Barn.  Originally they planned to use it as a home base while they went on another expat assignment as my dad worked overseas a lot so they kept it small.  However, they became grandparents soon thereafter and decided that they were done traveling and living away from the US! At this point they are full time grandparents first, and everything else second.

The Barn is a big garage with a very cute two bedroom, one bath apartment above.  If it were just my mom and dad it would be perfect, but its NEVER my mom and dad.  They are very social and always have many, many guests, including squatters like me who come and stay for a long time!  At this point my sister, Shawna, is living here with her two boys, my nephews, Aiden and Fin.

After nine years in the Barn, my mom and dad finally built a new house, and just in time too!  The timing was perfect for Gemma's arrival and my sister needing to move. 

Here it is!  Its only about six months old and shortly thereafter my mom shattered her heel, so finishing it off has been slow.  They are just now working on the landscaping around the house.

Its a great house and my favorite part is the BIG front porch :). Here is my mom sitting with Gemma and doing her bible study.  I love Texas weather, yes August sucks, but we have had the most beautiful Fall, Winter and Spring.  I always say I'll take a Texas summer over a Yankee winter any day!  I HATE cold weather.  Its so nice to be able to sit on the porch in this gorgeous weather!

Here's our little treasure :).

My dad is always busy out here; he has a hard time sitting still.  He loves it because he loves to work, and there is always a lot of work to do.  He can often be seen roaming around on his small tractor. Sometimes, when he needs a BIG tractor, like this one, he rents.  He has a lot of fun with his toys.

Isla loves to go for tractor rides with her Pawpaw!

I always say that my parents are trying to build a Venus Grandchild Trap! There is so much for small kids to do.

There's Gator rides.

Isla loves the animals.  Here she is hunting for lizards.

This is the only resident pet, Penelope the pot bellied pig.  Isla loves to feed her.  They have had other animals through the years, mainly many birds and dogs, but they have not have much luck keeping them.  Penelope seems to be here to stay though! :)

A bird made a nest on the porch and the eggs hatched a few weeks ago.  Today was the first day they ventured out of the nest so we had all of these little baby birds flying all over the porch... OMG... talk about precious!

This spring the butterflies have been out in full force.  I have seen so many different species, and it has been so much fun to go and look at them with Isla.

Oh but there's more! My parents put in an awesome playground about seven years ago or so.

And here's the latest toy... the "Tramp Queen" as Isla calls it! My brother Steelie (yep, named after my dad's Corp buddy) bought this at Christmas for his daughter and nieces and nephews to use at my mom's house. We love it and have spent many hours playing and having fun in it.

Nick loves to come out here because there are always so many projects for him to do, and my parents love to put him to work!  He loves wood working, and clearing brush and just being outside.

He's been able to build a bridge over the creek that runs through the property for the Gator path... a very exciting project for a structural engineer.

This is the tank.  We do catch and release fishing which the kiddos love, and the picnic area is on the other side in that grove of trees. Nick built the sturdy picnic tables we use.

And perhaps my favorite of Nick's building projects (some of you knew this was coming)... the gazebo!  Nick designed it on AutoCAD and built it for our wedding 100% by himself.  The fact that I was married here on the Thistle Patch is one of the many reasons why its so special to me!

Here is the tent area (still called that 8 years after my wedding), the gazebo and the tank just beyond.

And just for fun :).

And I won't take pictures of the entire inside, but this is where the Wanns have been sleeping.  We get the entire top floor of the new house.  This is Nick, Gemma, and my room, my parents bought me a glider (not pictured) which was so thoughtful. Gemma sleeps in the nap nanny on the floor.

Isla gets her own room.  This is her new bedding for her new room in Midland.  My mom refinishes furniture and refinished that adorable night stand for Isla.  She bought it for only $25!  She does great work.  We bought a set of dressers and a desk for cheap on Craiglist and she is going to refinish those too.

And the best part of being on the second floor... the playroom!  I told you they were grandparents first.  They even made sure to put a playroom in their new house just for the grandkids to go and play.  A lot of the toys are my nephews' since there isn't a playroom in the barn.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  This is one of my favorite places on earth and just about perfect... now if only my parents would install a pool (hint, hint)!  We always enjoy our time at the Thistle Patch!