Last Friday was Texas Day…or something like that. I have videos to upload but meanwhile, check out the pics on our Flickr account.

We had a great time at the Mercer Arboretum last weekend. Here are some of the pictures but you can see them all at our flickr account.

Jack’s eyes in this one crack me up!

It’s such a beautiful area that people go there to take just about every kind of picture (choir, wedding, etc.). We stumbled upon a crowd of people with matching shirts, cowboy hats and boots. They looked so neat! Then we saw what they were there for: the most beautiful 15 year old hispanic girl. I guess it’s a tradition. All I know is she was luminous. They had two Hummer limos and it was very ceremonial looking. I snapped a couple of shots because I had just never seen anything like it before!

We found a country home we love but there’s one problem: it’s just too small! It’s the one affordable (if you think $244K is affordable) house among half a million dollar homes on acreages in Magnolia. My heart started pitter-pattering when we approached and as we went to the front porch, a baby deer scampered off into the backyard gated portion where it frantically tried to get out. The poor thing couldn’t find its way out of the gated acreage and scurried around the edge the entire time we were inside. I thought it might have a heart attack (can that happen to wildlife?!). So we explored the inside of the home which is just as charming as the outside - a sunroom, large master with closet but only 2 bedrooms upstairs. As we were leaving, mama deer was just on the other side of the fence trying to help her baby find her way out - how sweet is that?!

We have a signed contract and signed counter offer. Now, pray that all goes smoothly (don’t you think we deserve some of that smoothness?) through closing. It has been a rough year. We have learned much about our limitations, of which there are many. Showing a large house with 4 boys for 10 months has been no easy task, and the last month without hubby has been lonely. Those who love me best outright lie and say that I’ve handled it very well. I highly doubt that, but my only real benchmarks are: nobody’s dead, the house did get clean enough to sell and we all made it to church on time most of the time. Even if one week Ben was in his camoflauge rain boots (it was National Rain Boots Week, didn’t you hear?). I am now in MESS mode - living proof that we do have lives and we don’t have to clean all the time!!! I will NEVER apologize for a messy house again - I will be proud to LIVE there with my complicated, busy life. Socks and shoes strung out all over the mudroom means that my kids are here, alive, healthy and playing and remembered to take their shoes off - good kids that they are. Books and magazines strewn about means we have a little time to sit. And think. And ponder. And perhaps even learn something. It’s only day one but I have high hopes for days 2, 3 and beyond…here comes SUMMER!!! I say, bring it on!!!

p.s. The clematis pic is from our backyard deck - we will miss some of the plants we have babied for six years. Don found a replacement “vine” in Texas but it was a little too Little-Shop-Of-Horrors looking for me!

We were talking about how diverse the kids’ new school district will most likely be when we move to Houston as compared to Gretna, Nebraska. Jack proclaimed with much disappointment, “We’re going to be Texans?!? I wanted to be German!” He then went on to proclaim “No, no…I really wanted to be Egyptian!”

Cole informed me that when Gabe walked in from school he proclaimed, “Oh, yeah, baby! The furnace is working!” Cole thought it was funny because most of the time people only say anything about the furnace when it’s broken.

Where do they come up with this stuff???