Poor Metrosexual Joey.

This morning, Jess and G were doing their nails, and Joey made the mistake of falling asleep nearby.  He woke up with this saucy red manicure, but luckily he is secure in his manhood and he isn't letting it phase him.

Jessica's friend G is staying with us for the weekend, and since tomorrow is her birthday, and she had never been to a rodeo before, we all went to the Cowtown Colosseum and introduced her to the madness that is a Texas rodeo.

Getting chummy with the rodeo clown.

Adam trying to chase down a calf.

Lukie warming up for the Mutton Buster.

Git 'im!

And after tonight, for the rest of her life, G can say, with pride, "This ain't my first rodeo!"

Tonight, Brad and I got all gussied up to attend a fund-raiser dinner for Wounded Warriors.  Brad's company is one of the sponsors for this event, which includes a big golf tournament tomorrow, so we went to help represent MercedesBenz.  Of course, Brad is also golfing tomorrow, which should be fun since it's supposed to rain cats and dogs.  It's for a good cause, right? (And, who are we kidding?  A little rain isn't enough to keep Brad away from a free golf game on a nice course)

But, tonight it was all about me getting to go on a date with my dreamy hubby, where we were able to laugh at all the drunk people dancing.  Plus, I got to meet some of his co-workers, who were a little tipsy themselves, so they just loooooooooved me.  Apparently, I make a great first impression when there is an open bar.

Want to know the best part of living in our house?

The kids' buses now pick them up and drop them off at the end of our driveway.  This means I don't have to drive them to and from school like I did while we were in the hotel.  And it mostly means that if I happen to have a little nap in the afternoon, I don't have to wake up until I hear Lukie open the front door (and maybe not even then).

Bonus: Since I took this on garbage day, y'all get to see the mountains of stuff we are throwing away as we unpack.  You're welcome.

Inspired by the deep satisfaction I felt after cleaning Adam and Luke's bedroom on Monday, today I tackled Pepper's bedroom.  It was nearly as atrocious as his brothers' had been.

This morning, it looked like this:



And, tonight it looks like this:

I also unpacked/organized/cleaned the laundry room,
which went from this...:

...to this:

I LOVE MYSELF RIGHT NOW!!

Look what I found 10 minutes away from my house!

I was a big fan of Aldi when we lived in MI, but ironically I almost never shopped there in Germany.  When we first moved to Berlin, I went to the neighborhood Aldi one night with Brad, and we were quite taken aback by the big PUDDLE OF BLOOD by the entrance.  Nobody seemed to care that it was there; customers just steered their carts around it and none of the employees made any effort to clean it up.  This led me to believe that PUDDLES OF BLOOD were a common occurance at this particular Aldi, and quite frankly the whole atmosphere was pretty ghetto.  So, I didn't go back, preferring to shop at my big, American-sized Kaufland that had better parking anyway.

But, there was no blood puddle at this Aldi.  When I walked in (after slipping my quarter into the shopping cart to release it from the others) and saw all my old Aldi favorites from Michigan, I had to squelch a little squeal of excitement.  Aldi brand Oreos and cheese crackers and ranch dressing and pancake mix and freezer waffles - all for super cheap and organized just like I remembered. 

I had A Moment there in the dry goods aisle.  It was pretty special.

Today, I spent most of the day organizing and cleaning Adam and Luke's bedroom.  I made the mistake on Saturday of telling them to unpack the boxes in their room and put stuff away. 

Somebody please tell me what I was thinking. 

When they were "done", their room was a way bigger pigsty than it was before they started.  They just put clothes willy-nilly into drawers, not caring about sorting or organizing at all.  Half of Luke's drawers were full of Pepper's clothes that were in a box put in the wrong room.  The closet was full of books and toys, and the entire top of their dresser was covered with a million Legos that had been found in a box and offered a welcome distraction when the boys were supposed to be organizing their room.  The suitcase which had housed their clothes from this summer was still sitting completely full in the center of the floor and there were a couple of boxes the boys didn't even touch, protesting that "there is no more room, Mom."

My mental health would not allow me to live in the same house with this mess for one more minute, so this morning I pushed up my sleeves and got to work.  And, now it looks like this:

The plan is to get bunk-beds in here for the two boys, but for now they are sharing this bed.

Is there anything more satisfying than an organized closet?  No, no there is not.

Now this room has become my oasis.  When I get fed up with the chaos that is the rest of the house, I go in here and take a few deep breaths.  This space gives me hope that someday I will live in an orderly home again.

The cherry-on-top of my very productive day was that Brad's brother Zach came to visit us tonight.

Zach is in Dallas for business, and he drove over to see us tonight after dinner.  It was fantastic to see him - Zach is a master storyteller, and he was cracking us up with stories about his kids.  Plus, having extended family in our house went a long way towards making it feel more like Home.

We were awakened this morning by the sound of Lukie yelping for joy.

After having a loose tooth for only one day, it fell out this morning with almost no effort.  Luke was overjoyed!

(At the risk of sounding cynical, I think I can pretty much guarantee that the Tooth Fairy will not remember to come tonight.  It is never good when a tooth is lost first thing in the morning - there is too much time for the Tooth Fairy to forget about it by bedtime.)

Pretty much everything that I didn't know what else to do with got put in this little side garage when the movers unloaded.  Brad took it upon himself to go through it today, enlisting the boys' help in hauling and rearranging.  I should mention that it was over 100 degrees all day.  And sadly, even after 8 hours of work, the job is not done.

But, Brad took pity on his crew and let them hit the pool tonight, even though the garage is still a mess.  I guess we all know what we'll be doing next Saturday, too.

Unfortunately, I have only myself to blame.

Before we left Berlin, I just didn't have it in me to go through all our stuff and throw away the junk we don't use or need anymore.  Brad was gone, either to Rome for work or here in Texas for work, and the thought of sorting and hauling, not to mention navigating the German dump, gave me a huge stomach ache.  So, when the movers came to pack up, I just had them pack it all, figuring I could go through it as I unpacked it.  I thought it would be easier to handle here in English-speaking America, especially with Brad around to help.

So now as I unpack boxes, I have another box handy where I throw items to give to Goodwill.  After unpacking my closet, you can see that I have three good-sized boxes of junk to give away.  Yeah, it's dumb that we trucked it halfway across the world, and I pretty much hate having to go through it all while I'm trying to get settled in here, but I still think this is better than me doing it all by myself in Germany.

At least, that's what I keep telling myself as I grumble my way through boxes.

Pepper is in heaven!

Our new riding lawn mower was delivered today, and Pep couldn't wait to give it a test drive.  For those of you who don't know Pepper, he LOVES to mow lawns.  It is a source of great pride for him to do a good job mowing a lawn, and now that he can do it on this Bad Boy, there will be no stopping him!

I am finding this whole unpacking business very frustrating.  Even as I empty boxes and put away the contents, the boxes themselves don't go away.  They just pile up and add to the general feeling of chaos around here.

Ugh.  Unpacking sucks.

I am so grumpy.

Today, all our stuff from Germany was delivered to the new house.  We have SO MUCH STUFF.  I had to check off every box and item as it came into the house to verify that we had all our stuff, and I am exhausted after 8 hours of watching all the men haul everything in.

 (Wow, that sounds way lamer than it should.  Yes, I get that the men doing the hauling are surely more tired than me, but I still had to stand on the concrete all day long and check everything off.  Feel sorry for me!)

The whole process was made even funner (more fun?) by the fact that all our boxes are labeled in German, so the movers didn't know which room they belonged in, and in most cases I can't tell what the contents are based on the words written on the outside.  I'm sure I'm going to end up rearranging all the boxes once I open them and see what is actually inside.

Also adding an extra layer of intrigue - I can SMELL the bread the movers packed in a box in Germany.  I had been told that it was against customs to move any food, so I assumed when the movers packed up the kitchen in Berlin, they would leave the half-loaf of bread on my cupboard.  They didn't - they packed up EVERYTHING.  Whenever I walk past the boxes in the kitchen, I get a whiff of moldy bread.  That's going to be fun to find.

I LOVE MY NEW HOUSE!!



Meet Joey.

We've been promising Jessica a dog for years - YEARS! - and today we finally kept that promise.  Literally, the minute we were able, we went to the local Humane Society and Jess picked out our new family member.

Joey is a six-month-old Blue Heeler/German shepherd mix.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a dog person, but even I can't deny that Joey is a nice dog.  The only time we've heard him bark was when the bully dogs next door came outside and started yapping at him to beat the band.  Joey barked back, but then went to cower behind some bushes until the little bullies went back inside.  Never mind that the little yappers are tiny dogs and Joey is way bigger than them.

Our furniture and belongings from Berlin won't be here until Monday, but today the stuff we had stored in Michigan was delivered.

When we lived in Michigan, we were blessed to live in the same circle with some great friends and ward members, Rob and Michelle Wharton.  They saved our bacon many, many times by looking after the kids in emergencies, helping me break into my house when the keys were locked inside, and just being there to help us out as we got to know MI and carved a life for ourselves there. When we left for Germany, Michelle helped me organize all the junk in my basement and Rob took truckloads to give away.  Later, they arranged for a storage unit and moved our stuff there. They could be the poster family for Good Neighbors.

They had the keys to our storage unit in Michigan, so they were there when all our stuff was packed up to make the journey here to Texas.  After it was all loaded and gone, Michelle sent me a message that some "important documents" were packed with some of my tools.  So when I was going through the stuff here this afternoon, this is what I found in my tool bag:

Sweet Michelle had included a Welcome Home card along with some photos she took of reminders of our home in Michigan.  As I stood in my echo-y, empty new house, far from friends and anything familiar, it just warmed my heart and made me cry to see these comfortable images of home and read her kind words of support.  It gave me hope that we will find good people here, just as we found good people when we moved to Michigan, then Germany, strangers in a strange land. 

Michelle, thank you for the little tender mercy you sent to Texas.  I know you don't have time to spare, and I already appreciate all the time you and Rob gave to help us out.  But to know that you also took time to pick out a card for us and take and develop pictures really means a lot to me.  I can't tell you what a boost it was to find it in the midst of all our moving madness.

I'm going to do my best to get to heaven, because I want to be your neighbor there, too.

Today was kind of stressful, but had a happy ending.  Thankfully.

We FINALLY closed on our house this afternoon!  It all went without a hitch, and afterwards we drove over to the house for a final walk-through before the sellers signed their share of the papers.  When we arrived at the house, we were surprised to see a huge truck and crew of movers hard at work loading.  Apparently, there was some trouble because of the weather, so they were all late.  Since we were supposed to get the keys and assume ownership in one hour, it was disheartening to see the house half-full and dirty.

We left to go pick up the kids from school, then drove around aimlessly wondering what to do.  Both our cars were packed to the rafters with all the stuff we'd had at the hotel (our real estate agent called us the Beverly Hillbillies), and we weren't sure we'd be able to stay at the house tonight as planned. 

We did know we were hungry, so we headed to an Applebees and got some dinner.  While there, Brad got a text from the seller's agent that they were done loading the truck and a crew of housecleaners were on the way to the house to clean it up for us.  So, we dawdled over dinner, then headed to Walmart to buy air mattresses and sleeping bags so we could live in the house without our furniture until Monday.

Finally, around 9:30 p.m., we arrived HOME and settled down for the night. 

Home.

I like the sound of that.

We just heard that our loan is approved and we are scheduled to close on our house TOMORROW!!

Our furniture will not be delivered until Monday, so we are going to buy some sleeping bags and camp out in the house until then.  We figure that will be cheaper than paying to stay three more nights here at the hotel.

So, to commemorate our last night in this fine Fairfield Marriott, I am compiling a list of things I will miss once we are gone.

10 Things I Will Miss About Our Marathon Marriott Stay:

#1

Having breakfast prepared for me everyday.

#2

Leaving my room everyday looking like this...

...and coming back to it looking like this.

#3

All the money we are saving on soap and shampoo.

#4

The free popcorn or chocolate-chip cookies at reception every evening.

#5

Feeling fancy.

#5

...ummm...

Sorry.  I got nothing else.

It's really time to leave.

Miss All-That

There is always a long line of cars when I pick Luke up at his elementary school, and this hot little mama is in charge of keeping everyone organized.  She walks up and down the line of cars, using her walkie-talkie to tell the people inside the school which child should come out next.  I get a perverse little kick out of her, since she takes her job VERY seriously, strutting around dressed to the nines everyday like she is walking a fashion runway.

I know I shouldn't make fun of her, since she is doing a job I certainly don't want to do.  But, Miss All-That clearly wants to be noticed, so this is me noticing her.

Pepper after a long day of eighth grade.  What a guy!

Sunday dinner these days.

I'm not going to lie - I don't hate eating out on Sundays.  I don't have to cook anything, and I don't have to listen to the kids fighting as they do the dishes in the kitchen that will be sopping wet and covered with leftover food gunge when they are "finished".

Today was all about appliances.

We are optimistic that we will close on our house this next week, so Brad and I spent the day figuring out what appliances we should buy.  We called a few family members for their opinions on fridges and washers/dryers, and spent some quality time with Consumer Reports.  Since my highest priority is Appliances That Don't Break, we talked to my brother-in-law who is an appliance technician.  He told us that his next fridge would be a Jenn Air, since they seem to have the best non-breakdown track record.  We looked on Consumer Reports, and they confirmed that Whirlpool, which makes Jenn Air, are rated number one in reliability.

So, off we went to a local appliance dealership.  We walked in, and asked to be directed to the Jenn Air fridges.  The sales lady showed us the Jenn Air, which we liked, but then showed us the fridge next to it, which is a KitchenAid (also made by Whirlpool).  She said this fridge is her Fantasy Fridge, and proceeded to sell us on it completely (it is also less expensive than the Jenn Air).

First of all, it has metal drawer slides for the interior drawer.  Our fridge in Berlin, which was awesomely huge and very American (native Germans literally stared at it with their jaws agape), had plastic drawer slides for the produce drawers, which broke.  For the last year or so that we had the fridge, we could only open the produce drawer about three inches before it would fall off the tracks, thereby causing me to make a loud scuff of annoyance in the back of my throat like my Dad is so good at doing.  So, when I saw the metal drawer slides, I was suitably impressed.

But, this drawer is what hooked me.  The above picture (which I stole from KitchenAid's website) shows the drawer all compartmentalized and full of lush fruits and vegetables.  But when our sales lady mentioned that the drawer is deep enough for soda cans to stand upright, I knew we had found our fridge.  Can you just imagine some of those compartments full of tidy little rows of cold Diet Cokes?  It makes my heart melt.

So, the fridge is ordered and scheduled to be delivered on Saturday.  This is my example of "Faith precedes the miracle", with the miracle being our house closing before then.

Friday Night Lights

Tonight as we exited the restaurant after dinner, the loud-speaker commentary from this high school football game was bouncing off the store fronts of the little shopping area where we were.  We drove by to get a closer look, and discovered that this football stadium belongs to a church that also boasts a small private high school (you can see the church steeple to the right). 

I should mention that it was just after 8:00 p.m. and the thermometer in my car said it was 106 degrees outside.  I think the fact that a little school has a football set-up like this and that the team was playing in such heat - not to mention the sweaty fans watching from the bleachers - testifies of the importance of football in the Lone Star State.