Randomness

Nothing better then watching Shrek, with Isabelle, on the parent's bed.

Missy thinks sleeping in the sun, on the parents bed, is pretty good too.

Matthew is fascinated with the berries that grow on all the bushes on our walk.

I don't see any Mom, oh there they are!

More Christmas decorations.


Happy family all hanging out after supper in a pleasant way.

Matthew woke up from his nap and this is the conversation that followed.
Matthew: Helllooo?
Me: Hi!
Matthew: It's me.
Me: It's you?
Matthew: Obviously it's me.
Me: Obviously it's you?
Matthew: Yes.

When he said "Obviously it's me" I just died inside with laughter. He's so funny.

Happenings

Thanksgiving eve we had an uninvited guest. I made the hubby chase him back out to the garage. Thank goodness Angela wasn't here. Our guest would have become a guest back to her house. ;)

There hasn't been enough boy shots for some grandparents, so I've made an effort to get more.

Today, (since I realized I've gained enough weight to make my jeans tight) we went on a family walk. When I took this photo, we were in front of our friends house. (The one that very generously let us stay there while we were trying to find a house.) I could see our car from there, but I don't know if you will be able to, even blown up. It would be the silver SUV at the left top.

With 2 pushes when he hit really steep parts of the sidewalk, the boy was able to pedal all the way up. He was sooo happy!

Matthew put his new scissors to good use to help cut open the Christmas lights box.

We are slowly decorating. Matthew decided on white lights this year and the white gowned angel for on top. For the first time in a long time, he wants to be in the photos again. I just love that boy. I cannot lie. Guess who had to be the voice of various Thomas the train's friends today? I'm sure you know!

A brave new world

Matthew has scissors.

And he knows how to use them!

Then there's Isabelle...I'm not going there.


We had a wonderful holiday. We cooked for half the day and had a feast that was 100% homemade. I was sooooooo proud. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have the family with us.

I've remember a few tidbits that I haven't shared about Matthew.
1. He is working on cutting with scissors. He started with a pair I had as a child. Today we bought a new pair and I think since they are a little smaller, that it works a little better for him.
2. On the way to TX, he and "Missy" talked and talked and talked. He told her alot about how he felt. I've forgotten alot of what he said, but the topic was he was sad, and worried, but he believed it would be ok. He told Missy several times that it would be ok, because "we have found the exact right house now." It really made me happy to know how he felt even if he didn't want to tell me about it.
3. All today Matthew has been talking to his polar bear. Guess who gets to be the voice for that? That's right, the same as Missy, only polar bear's voice is different, slightly. It's a good thing this "voice" as been the voice for animals for years now. You definitely want the voice of experience.
4. Matthew asks us alot, "Are we in TX?" or "Are we still in TX?" I think the boy wants to go home as much as the rest of us. It's probably because the sidewalks all go downhill, which is great going down on his riding toys, but it's "too hard Momma" on the way back home.

Gobble Gobble!

In a kids craft book, I saw a project about making a turkey out of a stuffed paper bag. We don't have any of those at the moment, but we did have a full bag of brown plastic bags. In another project, the turkey's tail was made out of construction handprints. So Matthew, Phil, and I traced our hands 3 times and made a tail for the turkey. With our nifty printer, I blew up the head for pinecone turkeys and voila! Matthew colored it a lovely green (and one side of the beak purple.) Tomorrow I plan to write what we are thankful for on our handprints.

Matthew and I are pretty proud of how it turned out. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hot water part 2

They came yesterday and installed the new water heater. This time they put it in a neat rubber tray that has a spout. The spout allows the water to exit at a safe spot in the garage. It's so nice to have hot water again. Just in time for laundry and all the dirty Thanksgiving pans.

And here is Matthew's latest project. I'd show exactly what it is, but it's a surprise. I, of course, run the glue gun.

Hot water

As in, we have none. Our hot water heater ruptured, which means that it can't be fixed. (I'm guessing from the damage, that it was this way before the last tenants left.) It has leaked for at least the last week. Since it's wall shares our bedroom wall, our bed had to be moved because it was standing in the wet carpet. Here's hoping that the new one comes tomorrow afternoon!

New project

For years I wanted a big frame of family photos, to hang on the wall, that Matthew could look at. Especially of Phil's side, since we don't see them often. My dream is coming true. Here is the one for Phil's family. We have another frame exactly like it for my side. I love Hobby Lobby's 50% sales. I could never have afforded frames this size otherwise.

2 weeks

We've been here 2 weeks and already someone has stolen our flag pole that Phil decided to leave outside. It didn't even have the eagle attached. So we have a flag, an eagle topper, and no pole. GRRRRR...Now I'm wondering what's next...

Blocks

I love stealing a great idea! Thanks Faith.

House reveal

There she is, our new temporarily house. Plum tree in the front, peach in the back.

Living room from front entry.

Kitchen

And the dining room. It's a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house with a 2 car garage, for $25 more then the first house that was a 3 bedroom.

The back patio. This house doesn't have the dream soccer field backyard behind it, but it's ok. It's enough to kick a ball in. Matthew loves to ride his riding toys in the garage.

Our new neighbors. They love Matthew because he gives them peanut butter Capt. Crunch treats.

Last Friday we went to storytime, at the library on post. We won a Longhorns football that some guy took, so we got a sucker instead. At a trip to Target, Matthew convinced us he needed a Lightning McQueen bike helmet. (It came with a bike bell.)

Beyond our house is Fort Hood range. This means we have wandering neighbors. The 1st 3 days we were here, we were blessed with their presence.

Look at those horns. I love having no houses behind me. If I get homesick I just go lean on the fence and it feels like home.

Here is Matthew in the empty moving truck. He loved running up and down that 26 ft of moving joy.

Yesterday we tried to get back on routine. We took a walk with Missy and painted.

Being an artist, I was sooooo excited that he painted for an unheard of 40 minutes!

Monday we went to JAG so they could help us get our deposit back from the other house's property management company. That's soooo nerve racking for me, but it's the principle of it. Our property management company got word on Monday that our house smelled like cigarettes and by this morning installed odor blocker in the vents. They are doing great so far.

Today Phil finally got to his unit around noon. In his platoon is a guy he served with for many years at Ft. Riley. Hopefully that makes him feel a little more at home. The word on the street sounds like he'll be in the last unit in Iraq. (Poetic justice since he was in the first unit into Iraq.) He might be leaving in May. We'll just have to wait and see. Matthew and I are ok with it. We figured this day would come. We're military!

Oh sweet beautiful thing

After 2 days of waiting we have the INTERNET!!!

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. We have been here for 10 days. We signed on a house the day before we had to leave, so Matthew and I were able to come with Phil. The house is fine, except that it was heavily smoked in before us. UCK! We are finding that TX is challenging our faith and sanity. Maybe the prayers shouldn't stop yet! Phil signed in for 1 day and then the army went on a 4 day weekend. Nice, but we want to find out what will be happening in our lives. After all we'd had him for 35 days straight, we could have given him up for 2 more to learn our fates. Maybe tomorrow we'll learn something.

I have lots of photos, well some at least. Check back and hopefully I'll have some up. Cheers!

Last of the Halloween photos

On Halloween, we went to our very first Halloween egg hunt. Here is Matthew waiting.

And he's off! He got alot of the orange and black eggs.

The Grandparents pumpkins.

Our pumpkin that Phil carved for us.

Today we went to the after Halloween sales. Matthew rode the bull.