counting down

Two months from today we will leave Texas. The countdown has begun.  In many ways we will be SO GLAD to leave. We will be happy to be done with Dave's fellowship most of all. It has been a miserable year of training, though valuable for all he has learned. Today the call schedule was emailed for May and I thought "one more call schedule email".  Many similar thoughts run through my head, "one more rent check" "9 more times to take out the trash" "8 times to teach music in primary" "3 more weekends off with Dave to do fun things"  (only three because Lexey and I will be out of town for one of the weekends he is off and one of the weekends we'll be loading the truck.)

We have definitely loved our Houston home. We love the neighborhood, neighbors, flat streets to ride bikes and roller blade on, slow paced way of life we've adopted. It is great. We will be sad to leave for many reasons. The kids are starting to realize that their friends are here and that as much as they were excited to hear that we are going back to SD they are going to be devastated to leave. Since our friends are in the neighborhood we have unlimited play dates. It is kind of unfortunate that we only have friends over in SD when there is a formal play date planned. Here the kids can just step outside and play. It reminds me of my childhood, playing with all the kids nearby.

Of course we are also super excited to be done with fellowship, done with training, having the month of July off to hang out as a family.  We will be glad to be back to the SD weather, the friends and family we have there (although it will NOT be the same to move back and not have Pete and Jessica there. boo hoo.)

All in all, it will be a bittersweet move in two months.

HISD bus

HISD = houston independent school district
bus = bus Calvin rides to school

This could be a long post about how the bus system here is not up to par.  Instead I'll make it short and just share one story.

This morning I get a phone call at 6:15 from Calvin's bus driver, Delia. Here's our conversation.

Delia: hi, is this Calvin's mom? I forget your last name.
Me: yes, this is Calvin's mom
Delia: oh, hi. yes, I don't have my drivers license so I can't drive the bus today. I had it yesterday when I went to the office but now I don't have it so I can't drive.  I don't know if there can be a sub so maybe you should drive Calvin to school.  I don't have my license so I can't drive the bus. I had it yesterday --
Me:  ok, thanks for letting me know.
Delia: are you driving him to school?
Me: No a bus should still pick him up
Delia: ok


With the HISD bus system they do not hire substitute drivers. When they are in need of a sub, they radio out to other drivers and see who is available right then to go pick up students who are stranded. This means they can never give you a pick up time. usually I call the Bus dispatch office 3 or 4 times to check on the sub bus situation and then about an hour past his usual pickup time I have to get kind of nasty, tell them I need to go to work and can't sit home all day and then they have a bus here within 15 minutes.  

Calvin's school is about 15-20 minutes away in light traffic (between 10am-2pm) but in the morning rush it takes about an hour to get there so I am not inclined to drive him myself. It wastes way too much time.


As we are getting ready to leave Houston -- 9 weeks from today-- we have been talking about our top 10 and bottom 10 things in Houston. HISD bus and all other public service type organizations will definitely make the bottom 10!

funnies

Tonight in Jo's prayer (which was super long) she prayed that Dave could leave work early tomorrow to come home and be with us. She also prayed that he wouldn't die in a car crash on the way home. She is very thorough. Love her!  

While we're talking about her prayers, she calls them frayers. She always starts like this "heavenly father. thank you for our family and mandys. please bless our family and maddie and soren and mandy and mike."  Oh, how we are going to miss the Hansens next door!

We are considering getting another dog. We've been talking dog names...another ohio state themed name? A houston themed name? Something random?  Tonight Dave suggested a Houston themed name : Walmart! haha. Houston is so ghetto! It's hard to really want a Houston associated name because it's a ghetto city and the work for Dave this year has been so miserable and yet the rest of us have LOVED it here and plus we've made some great memories as a family so it's a good thing too!

super gondas

Some people when they train for 15 years and finally get a real job go out to a nice steak dinner and spend an insane amount of money on food. Not the Gondas! We order family t-shirts!  We gifted these to the kids and told them to find the clue telling them where the job would be. There is an 858 next to the super G, the San Diego area code. The kids all enjoy their Super Gonda t-shirts!

strawberry picking

A few weeks ago we went strawberry picking. It was really fun. We met the Francis family there. We enjoyed chatting while the kids ran up and down the  strawberry patches picking the best berries and eating them too. There was a sign that said no eating but that was difficult, if not completely impossible to enforce with children under 8 so we were a bit lax on that. I spent enough money on strawberries and in the store there that I feel good about my contribution to their cause! Super fun day.

Clare's friend Annika had sent Flat Stanley to us a week or so before so he came with us on this and a few other adventures and will be seen in the pictures.

"um no, I did not eat any strawberries in the field"

apparently even kids older than 8 tasted strawberries

family movie night

Once a week, or sometimes less if the weather is nice and we're out doing other fun things, we watch a family movie. We take turns picking but also try to influence the kids when it is their pick to choose something that we'll enjoy instead of a full length cartoon.  Some of the biggest hits have been movies from when Dave and I were growing up that we've shown the kids.  Lately the kids LOVED Swiss Family Robinson! We also enjoyed Jurassic Park last week.  We watched back to the future and indiana jones which are fun (but have a bit of swearing). The kids liked Pollyana, Chitty Chitty Bang Band, Bedknobs and broomsticks.  We are looking forward to watching all of the Star Wars movies again since there is a new star wars coming out this Christmas. We'd also like to watch pirates of the Caribbean.

It has also been great to introduce the kids to the great music of the movies, music from pirates and of course  all of john williams masterpieces!

fellowship widow

Yesterday we were reading and came across the word widow.  The kids were asking what it meant and I taught them the meaning of the word saying, "that a widow is someone who is married but then her husband dies. For example, if daddy died, I would be a widow."  Lexey is very clever and quick witted and has a flare for the dramatic. She said, "mom, you are a widow. We NEVER see daddy."


This has been a long fellowship year for Dave. I have to say the rest of us have quite enjoyed life in Houston, but work for Dave has been extremely long and trying. We are so excited to have our dad back in 10 weeks. The month of July will be an extended family vacation and we are all really looking forward to that!

jo

Jo is so cute! I love her little high pitched voice and her darling mannerisms. One of my favorite things that she says is, "are you finking (thinking) what I'm finking?" or "is our whole family finking what I'm finking?"

mud angels

I'm sure it's been documented before, but these kids LOVE the mud!!!!

laying on the ground leaving mud prints!

cup is overflowing

I often write about the "events" and "photo moments" and "things" we do. I don't very often just write.

As we finish up our year in Houston I am feeling so blessed for the great life that I have. I've also been looking through some old pictures on the computer and realizing that this phase of life with three sweet girls is changing as they grow up right before my eyes.  When I look over pictures I see that my "little girls" are growing up into girls. I fear that if I blink again I will have three teenagers (heaven help us)! Sometimes I wish I could freeze time and enjoy them as they are for a little longer.

For the last 3 years, these girls have been best friends and inseparable insofar as they've been able to be together.  Here are some pictures from a couple of years ago.

 Lifes most precious moments are not those captured on vacation or when we dress up and smile at the camera. Most of the moments of our life are missed by the camera. It is just the every day time that we spend with each other that make life so special. The camera gives us glimpses of those joys.

My life has revolved around these three angles. It is fun to see them interact. Clare is such a sweet and thoughtful big sister. She has watched over Lexey from the time she was born and also has taken such good care of Jo.  Lexey is an amazing middle child. She loves everyone. She is ALWAYS happy.  I have never seen anyone with such an even temperament and good nature. She will always give up what she has to make someone else happy.  Clare looks for Lexey as a fun companion and Jo hardly accepts me as her mother because she relies on Lexey to help her so much. Lexey is truly a delight to know. Jo is darling and fiery and still emerging as an individual. She is sensitive and shy at times but also very active and busy. She loves her comfort zone and her people to be around her. She is also obsessed with treats.



Today the girls were playing a game, Clare was Mom and the other girls were the teenage daughters.  They play so well together.  Jo decided since Clare was the mom, she would call me Grandma! haha.  These three girls are such delightful companions to me.  They are so cheerful, talk to people we meet when we are out and about and bring the joy of a child to all experiences we have.  While I have had some (hopefully few) complaints about giving up my personal freedom to home school for the year I know it will be a time that I look back on with such fondness.   Even with our day to day struggles to get work finished and stay on task, it is a pleasure to spend my waking hours with these girls. They care for each other, they care for others and they are simply happy.  I am worried that Jo is going to go into a deep depression when Clare and Lexey go back to school in the fall.

I hope that as these girls grow up they will continue to love each other and to be kind to those around them. That they'll be happy and productive teenagers and adults. I was talking with my dear friend Valerie Sabin this week and she was telling me what a delight it is to know your children as adults. I hope that my girls all enjoy me when they are older and are wonderful people as adults. I look forward to that time with them and hope that my weak parenting skills are good enough that they will be all they can be.


This week we went to a museum and park that was recently finished. Houston has NO hills. It was so fun to see the girls run up and down the hill until Jo was completely exhausted!

Love how Lexey poses!

In the museum Lex and Clare played checkers

 And did an experiment to look at cheek cells

And my darling Calvin who doesn't like to be photgraphed as often but has a sweet spot in my heart and loves his sisters just as much as the rest of us do!

I'm thankful for sweet Calvin. Even with his troubles he is a special person and loves everyone.  He is really growing up. Twelve years old this year!  The next couple of years he'll grow from boy to teenager.