Monday, April 28, 2014

Our First Few Weeks in Texas

Yes, we made it to Texas!  And, yes, I am overdue for an update.  Here's the thing...  We are still in boxes up to our eyelashes.  Soooo, not much time to blog.  But, as always, I have had my camera handy, so here's a quick run-down in photos...

Let's see...we spent almost 2 weeks at my parents' house in the Dallas area.  Lots of fun with cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents!



Dinner at Babes.  I've heard that Glenn Beck talks about this restaurant often, and he's right...it's amazing.

Check out the platter of chicken fried steak and fried chicken they brought to our table!  (Camera operator missed it on this one, but you can still see that mountain of meat)

Waitresses did the Hokey Pokey.


All the cousins dyed eggs on the back porch at my parents' house.


It had been 8 years since we had been in Texas for Easter, so it was really nice to be together with family.  And there's a reason that these cousins look alike, as my brother and I look a lot alike.




My nephew was so much fun to photograph while he blew bubbles.


 Egg hunt...



Basketball after Easter lunch...


I adore this photo!  Can you tell that these cousins looooove each other?!  Can you tell how much they have missed each other?  This picture speaks volumes.


And you know I wasn't about to miss photographing these gorgeous Texas bluebonnets!  I have MISSED these flowers!!  And we arrived in Texas just in time to see them in all their glory.











Can you tell they love their grandparents?!


Quick drive to the elementary school in Arlington where I used to teach...


Door to the 6th grade hall where I spent many long hours working many years ago...


After nearly 2 weeks in Dallas, we headed to the San Antonio area where we did all the closing paperwork on our house.  We were very ready to finally get into our Texas home.



My brother-in-law and sister-in-law drove in from Arizona to help us unload our PODS.  Seriously awesome, right?


The night before they returned to Arizona, we went down to the San Antonio River Walk, where Fiesta San Antonio was in full swing.  Texans know how to celebrate the victory of their independence!






My brother-in-law taught me how to do a time exposure with my camera.  Wow...didn't know it could do all that fun stuff!




The next morning, I snapped this photo of a deer on our property.  Love it!


Here's the view from our back deck on a misty morning.  Truly beautiful.




Here's one treasure that I unpacked...my grandmother's dishes.  I remember eating on these plates when I was a little girl, and I was thrilled when my mom offered to give them to me!  Aren't they perfect?



And, of course, you want to know how the children are getting along.  As you can see, the drama is back up and running.  They are making their third movie, starring President Lincoln's 2 sons...


And a Chinese man who threatens to take over America...  Now, I must say, it took a pretty good make-up artist to change my Asian princess into this Chinese man!) :)




The director/costume designer/make-up artist then transformed the Chinese man into a pretty little Chinese woman.



Meanwhile, what is Mama doing while the actors are busy with their movie production?!  Well, among 17 trillion other things, changing curtains was on the agenda for today.

BEFORE...


AFTER...  (And these pretty things were given to me by my mom, who just moved into a smaller house and didn't have enough windows for all her curtains...so yay!!)


Here was the first home-cooked meal in our Texas home...BBQ chicken sandwiches, ranch beans and a mixed greens salad.  And, I tell you...Austin has all things yummy, because I tried a BBQ sauce from there, and well...Texas just knows how to do BBQ.


I hung my apron up on the hutch tonight after making dinner and loved the look of it...so I had to take a picture.  My children say I take pictures of everything!


Someday soon I will post more photos of the house.  For those of you who seem to think I'm always organized, you need to take a look at the state of this house as we are moving into it.  Here's the homeschool area as of tonight.  Craziness!!!  As you can see...LOTS of work still ahead.