Moving Day

It's been no secret that Borger was a VERY hard move for our family. Leaving lots of friends and a strong ward in Katy and moving to a more remote area in the panhandle of TX was HARD! When I heard that we would be more than likely moving from Borger back to Katy over 6 months ago, I was excited! I've never moved back to a place where I had lived before (at least not where I actually remembered the people - did it a couple of times when I was young).

Today the packers/movers come and this has been more of an emotional time than I anticipated. So far this summer the kids and I have been almost gypsy-like in our constant traveling and so moving day always seemed so far away, something to write lists in anticipation of, but wasn't really going to happen...

About a week and a half ago I got hives all over (itchy, itchy) and after 2 steroid shots and a week of steroid meds I hope they are gone for good. I stress differently with each move and I guess it was hives this time. SOO grateful for modern meds!

Borger has been a learning experience for our whole family. Coby has had yet another opportunity to deal with a local management team that is better at knocking down then training and building up and a job that he loved, but was very emotionally hard dealing with the people involved.

The kids had a hard time making friends, but have finally bonded with a few and they will be missed. They have been playing with them the last couple of days and I know they will be sad to say goodbye for good.

I have struggled to get to know people and find a niche in Borger. Just about the time I did we are moving. I have learned some great lessons here though, some I have learned before and some new. I have felt the love of the Lord when I'm at a low point and know how important pondering and studying the scriptures is to my personal well-being. I know that "what doesn't kill me can only make me stronger" and I know that I can be a force for good.

Got up early (4am) today - wasn't sleeping anyway - and headed out to bootcamp (5am). Now that I have my nervous energy gone (really all my energy gone - been over a month since I've been and I'm tired!) I'm ready to tackle the first day of moving!

YUMMY!

I had a friend post on FB post that she was looking for something to make with leftover key limes...this is the perfect thing! Wish I had a picture to post, but it's been a while since I've made this. It is YUMMY though!

Key Lime Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce
Southern Living

Makes: 10-12 servings
Prep: 20 minutes
Bake: 1 hr. 13 min.
Stand: 15 min.
Chill: 8 hrs.

Crust
2c. graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, melted
Stir together above ingredients and firmly press on bottom and 1 inch up sides of greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake 350 for 8 min; cool.

Filling
3 (8oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 c. sugar
3 large eggs
1 (8oz) sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. grated lime rind
1/2 c. key lime juice
Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add sugar, beating until blended. Add eggs - one at a time - beating well after each addition. Stir in sour cream, rind, and juice. Pour batter into crust.

Bake 325 for 1 hr. 5min.; turn oven off. Partially open oven door; let stand in oven 15 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately run knife around edge of pan, releasing sides.

Cool completely in pan on wire rack; cover and chill 8 hrs.
Garnish with lime slices, lime zest, and whipped cream, if desired.
Serve with Strawberry Sauce.

Strawberry Sauce (makes 1 c.)
1 1/4 c. strawberries
1/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. grated lime rind
Process all ingredients in food processor until smooth - scrape down sides.

The Pledge of Alliegence??

Gavin came home from preschool today and had a certificate which said "Congratulations to Gavin who can say the "Pledge of Allegiance". I asked him to tell me the Pledge - this is how it goes (in Gavin's mind anyway):

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic ... who believeth in Him shall not perish
but have Everlasting Life. Amen."

I think that he has gotten Primary and Preschool mixed up, but I believe the scripture about "out of the mouth of babes" is right on the money...how TRUE would this Pledge be?? I believe the "Proclamation to the World" on the Family says this, just in more words.

Had to share, this totally tickled me!

On the road, again

One of my many fabulous cousins (on my mom's side) left for the MTC going to the Barcelona Spain Mission (she is the older sister to my cousin that got married in November). Her "farewell" was over MLK weekend and even though I wanted to go, I couldn't find a way to get away. I knew that it would be a blast and a HUGE party with family and FOOD, but just thought there was no way to go.

Then the Monday before her farewell weekend, I got a wild hare and decided to take the kids out of school on Thursday and make the drive to Las Vegas (a road trip in the new van - Coby couldn't go :( Someone has to earn the $$ to pay the bills). I did lots of laundry, packed suitcases, snax, etc. and Thursday morning we were up and on the road by 6am. Leaving in the dark made me SLEEPY and we had lots of potty stops early on in the trip (mostly because mom had to potty too), but we fell into a rhythm and 14.5 hours later we arrived in LV just in time for a YUMMY dinner!

We partied late into the night (esp. because LV is two hours behind central time), ate WAY TOO MUCH FOOD, the kids got to swim the in hot tub (too cold for the pool), played with cousins, shopped (Costco, Best Buy - all the "big city" places), and had LOTS of FUN! We enjoyed the opportunity to be with family, meet new friends, and have I mentioned the FOOD?

What a fun time, what great hosts, and it was great to hear Makayla's talk on the Atonement. What a great topic to study and teach about. She will be such an awesome missionary! Another cousin (Shayla) will be leaving for her mission to the Madrid Spain mission in March. She was there too. Since most of the cousins on my mom's side are younger than me (by 10+ years) it has been great watching them grow up and go on missions/get married! How exciting!

I also reconnected with an old friend - Colleen Peterson - while there. We share a common friend (Kathleen Briggs) who passed away after years fighting cancer. Kathleen was the most wonderful person! She was a people cheerleader and always saw the best in people! She is an amazing woman!! Colleen is awesome. She has so many talents and abilities!

The time to leave came too quickly and we were off at 4am (LV time) on Monday morning. The trip home was easier than the trip there. We made it home in about 13.75 hours, in time for a quix dinner and bed for the kids (and me, with all the partying, I was TIRED!).

It was well worth the 2 days of driving. That is one of the best parts of living in the panhandle of Texas, we are a day drive closer to family in the West. When we move again that will be one of the hard parts...

I LOVE my family!

The New Year brought change

January came (and has gone) before we knew it. The break between Cmas and New Year's evaporated and we decided it was because we were sitting in front of the TV too much, so we made a command decision and cancelled our DirecTV. I thought it would be TOO hard to keep going, but after about a week the "cravings" went away and life has continued on. We do have an antenna and get the basic channels. I have to admit that PBS is my favorite! The kid shows are great (and I usually don't have to worry about the content) and the Masterpiece Classic version of Jane Austin's Emma has been addicting! We are lucky to live in a modern age so we can access Hulu and the websites for different shows that we like to watch or have missed. Our computer is hooked up to the big TV so it's just like watching it on TV (and it's free).

At that same time we decided that we don't use our home phone enough to justify paying the bill every month, so we cancelled that too. It was thru AT&T (as WAS our internet). When Coby called to cancel it, he was told that the Internet MIGHT be down for 24 hours. Although that would put a cramp in my system, I can go 24 hours without Internet (luckily I have it on my phone). Well, after losing it EARLY on a Monday morning, I waited until Tuesday afternoon before calling AT&T since I didn't have internet yet. The very nice customer service lady told me I was on the schedule to get my internet hooked up Wednesday between 8am -8pm. Although I didn't want to wait another 24 hours I said ok. Well, at 4pm on Wednesday I STILL didn't have internet so I called AT&T again. This is when it all went bad. I talked to MULTIPLE customer service reps, supervisors, etc. and NONE of them could find an account for my internet to be hooked up and after spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME on the phone, I told them to cancel it. The final lady I talked too was so nice, but I have had bad luck with AT&T before and so it was a big decision for us to go with them again.

A couple of months before a nice lady had come to our door to introduce Clear Communications in our area. We liked her and the product, but had put $$ into a new modem, etc. for AT&T and didn't want to switch (since we should be moving soon anyway). Well, Coby was on the phone with Clear as I was dealing with AT&T and within 30 minutes of cancelling AT&T and calling Clear the sales lady was at our house and we were set up and I was back on the Internet.

AT&T is now dead to me and I LOVE that Clear was so on the ball. They are starting up in the Houston area so we hope to continue our account down there when we move. If you are looking for new Internet I HIGHLY recommend Clear. Even during the massive snow storm we had here last week we didn't have a problem with it! If you are in the market I would consider Clear!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas (or it was in December)...

The only down side to the trip to MO for Thanxgiving was that the van was acting very poorly. It was "hiccuping", stalling, squealing, etc. We were just very glad to make it home. Well, although I LOVE not having a van payment we decided it was time to start looking for something new for me to drive. We were tired of putting money into a dying vehicle (new fuel pump, air compressor (for the a/c), transmission, etc, etc, etc.) and wanted to still get a decent amt for trade-in so the hunt began. Although Coby really wanted an SUV, the mid-sized ones were too small and the big ones were too big. I just wanted a van again because they are family friendly and easy to drive. After a search we decided on a Toyota Sienna and purchased our new van on Dec. 10th. It is very nice with actual plugs in addition to the regular car plugs, a built-in DVD player with cordless head phones, an AUX jack in the radio for the iPod and XM and many other features. I love the silver color because it is so much easier to keep clean than the blue. I LOVE IT! Having a payment again is painful, but knowing we can get where we need to go without any van troubles is worth it!

Before Thanxgiving we started decorating for Christmas because we entertained a bit at the beginning of December and then my family came in for the holiday. I usually don't like to put up alot of decoration because then you just have to take it down after the holidays, but with people coming and a beautiful house to decorate we went all out. Icicle lights across the front of the house, wreaths in the front windows (the wind was so strong it blew them all down), Christmas tree decorated, garland, lites and bows on the banisters, mantel, and piano, etc. It was fun to see the house all dolled up. Although the house sometimes bugs me because it has required so much updating and fixing, it really is a beautiful home.

The month of December flew by, and before we knew it Christmas was upon us. The kids and I made a trip to Amarillo to go to Sams, Super WM, and all the other places to get the food, paper goods, and everything else ready for the masses to come. Both refrigerators were full, the pantry stocked, the house cleaned from top to bottom, and the kids excited for Gpa & Gma and Santa to come (maybe even in reverse order). My brother Cyle got home from his year tour in Iraq just in time for Cmas with the family and it was great to see him again. Both my brothers returned home safe from their tours in Iraq and I was grateful for that knowing that not everyone gets to experience that blessing.

Christmas was so much fun with family and friends in town. My sister and her family made it in the day after Christmas and we ate, partied, played, talked, and enjoyed our time together. Reality hit all too soon when everyone left Tuesday, but what a great time. My brother Clint (stationed in CA) wasn't able to be with us (he was at a friends wedding in Hungary), but he was there in spirit and hopefully we can all get together again soon.

Halloween & November...lots of travel!

We went to Gpa & Gma Adair's for Halloween. Mom got a new computer and so we went over there to help her set-up the new one; "sucking the guts" out of the old one and transferring it to the new one. The benefit for doing this, besides getting to have a fun weekend with Gpa & Gma, was that the kids inherited the old computer. They now have their own and I LOVE IT! No more messing with mom's computer. Aedan ontime opened so many windows (over 21) that it froze my computer and NOTHING but a cold shut-off would get it moving again.

The beginning of Novemeber I was able to take a trip to Las Vegas for my cousins wedding. Although we wanted to take the whole family, when we got down to the nitty-gritty it just wasn't going to work. With the budget, schedule, and real life considered, we decided I got to go ALONE! We have plenty of frequent flyer miles to pay for the ticket and with family there it was a cheap (and quick) trip. The sealing was awesome, the reception WONDERFUL, and I had a BLAST reconnecting with family and bonding with my most awesomest cousin (you know who you are...)! It was a much needed break from the kids and Borger. Coby was a trooper to take time off to be a full-time dad for 4.5 days (Thurs afternoon - Mon nite) and I was ready to resume my status as mom, wife, housekeeper, accountant, head chef, laundry goddess, taxi service, and whatever else I'm sure I could put on my resume when I returned.

Over Thanxgiving we traveled to Missouri...this was fun! We drove to OKC the first night and stayed with some friends from college. It was such a late night catching up with them, but what a great time we had!! Once in MO, we stayed with Gpa & Gma Lawrence (parents of Coby's "big brother" from the Big Brother/Big Sister program years ago - some of the only people from Coby's hometown we are still in touch with) who were above and beyond in their graciousness, generosity, and kindness to our family. They are truely an example of Christ-like love. We got to see some of Coby's dad's family on Thanxgiving night and had fun catching up with them. Because of Coby's family dynamics Coby didn't have much contact with his dad's family until about 4 years ago, so we are getting to know them better. Coby also reconnected with one of his oldest friends and on our way home we stayed with a great friend from my days in San Diego. It was so much fun to see her and meet her family!

Catsup, Ketcup, or is it Catch Up??

I can't remember what school it was, but I remember moving part-way thru the year to somewhere and I remember hearing the teacher saying it was catch up day. Well, how ever old I was I didn't hear "catch-up", I heard "ketcup" (remember, I am a natural blonde!). It was months of hearing the teacher announce it was "catsup" day before I figured out it was actually "catch-up". That being said, it is that day...
I think one of the reasons I don't blog so much is because I don't know if I acutally have anything valid, or funny, or profound to write. Our family is like so many other families - we have our great days and really not great days - living currently in a very small town just trying to figure out our place in the world.
As I have written before Borger has been a challenge for us and I can't deny that I was VERY excited that we should be moving back to the Houston area in the next 6 months. My nightmare is that they decide that since Coby is supposed to travel so much with his next project the company doesn't need to move the rest of the family to Houston, but I hope that just stays a nightmare and I can awake in Houston before too long.
The next couple of posts will be the catch-up...I know that I usually can read only a short bit at a time before I'm pulled away by an "urgent need" by any member of my family so I figured a couple of short posts is better than one really long one.