True Story

We had a long productive day here. Slept in a bit to catch up from the long drive yesterday. Hit the ground and got going on laundry and unpacking. Took Will to Target for a b-day card for pal's b-day party at 4. Ran up to the house to get the mail and check out the paint. The good news... it is started. The bad news... it's not done. Absolute progress but still a long way to go. I forgot my camera though so no pics today. Check back tomorrow.

I headed up to the Zone in McKinney to drop Will and we were a few minutes early. We sat in the car and I started the first sort of my BIG pile of mail. As we were ready to get out of the van Will asked if we could take care of kisses and hugs outside. (Insert sad face.) I suggested we just high five inside. He was cool with that. So, after I ran Will to the party I came back home to continue to sort through the mail while Fred got ready to go back up to the house to work on a punch list (open issues or unsatisfactory workmanship) I went back up with him since he was going to be crawling around in the attic and I always worry about him up there.

The good news is we remembered the camera this time. The bad news, Fred was using it for his punch list. I will try tomorrow.

We finished up there and then it was time to pick-up Will. He had fun at the party and talked all the way to getting Hungry Howie's pizza for Fred's b-day and the rest of the way home. So the true story of the day goes like this.

Hungry Howie Employee. "Your total is $15.14."

Me. "Here's a $20."

HHE. "We are out of quarters so I have to give you a lot of dimes."

Me. "Wait I may have some quarters for you." I look in my pocket to find 2 quarters, a dime and four pennies. I hand the girl the dime and pennies and say, "Pretend I just gave you $20.14 so I need $5 back."

HHE. "Boy I'm glad you are good at math. I would have never figured that out."

Me. Quietly in my head thinking "Seriously?" No tip for her.

We ate in shifts, each working on something important then it was time for showers and now it is time to read and get ready for a good night's sleep. Nic has been a little under the weather today so we hope he'll wake up 100% tomorrow. I seem to have caught a cold from my brother-in-law in Logansport and am quite miserable. Tomorrow is mellow in the AM then revs up after school. There is still stuff to be stowed after our trip but I'll take care of it in due time. Fred heads to Mexico in the AM and will be home Friday night. Another week in our exciting lives. Stay tuned!

We are HOME!

Home in Texas that is. We got in about 15 minutes ago so we are calling the trip 14 hours with three gas stops, a couple of potty breaks and some bumpy roads in OK on the reservation that slowed the mph down a bit.

Both boys fell asleep in the van but woke up close to home just in time to walk in under their own power and put themselves to bed. The heat is turned up, the dog is fed and the baggage will wait till tomorrow. G-night!

GRATITUDES:
1. Safe trip home
2. A glorious trip to Indy that included seeing almost everyone...
3. Chicago's Pizza and Breadsticks
4. Getting to see my crispy house tomorrow
5. MY BED!

Still chillin in Indiana

Chillin being the operative word. It's chilly here but in a good way. No snow though, that is a good thing considering the fact that we lost our snow scrapers in the fire.

We are in Logansport today and tomorrow then back to Indy. We are having Thanksgiving dinner here, Ham, noodles, 3rd grade pumpkin dessert and Angel Food Cake for Fred's Birthday. All good, all good. The boys are enjoying time with their favorite older cousin and Mama and Mary Sue are out finding the Thanksgiving Day deals at Wal-Mart and have already cleared the shelves at CVS. Deals deals deals. No waiting around for Black Friday here, that's for sure!

OK, my horoscope says to stop procrastinating so I am going to go take a shower and try to pick up the kids' sleeping area. We make such a mess when we come here, they are so tolerant, we love that!

Back home again...

We headed to Indiana on Saturday and crossed the state line around lunch time on Sunday. We made an overnight stop near Six Flags in St. Louis at a very nice Holiday Inn right by the park gates. Sadly we were not there long enough to have too much fun but the beds were spacious and the breakfast was HOT!

We arrived in time to join the rest of the Jerry Traub family (minus the SD Contingency) at the Christ the King Alumni dinner where the rents were presented with the Spirit of Christ the King Award with two other individuals. The received a cool trophy and we all had a pleasant dinner and the kids were no where in sight. Awesome cousin Sarah was in charge of the kids at 2205 and she did an awesome job.

We stayed up too late visiting and got to be bums today. Our first obligation is dinner at Chuck E Cheese with Natalie and Landry, if you can call that an obligation. Fred and I dashed out to Best Buy and Archivers respectively and are now home watching Sponge Bob with the boys. Rough life huh? Glad to be in Indiana even though it is COLD here and looking forward to more days with the fam before we head south to a beautifully painted house... WE HOPE!

Where's the Beef?

I have tried all of the local grocery store chains and have had no luck finding the beef stew mix. I went to Lawrey's website where they have a store locator and it says that every Kroger near me but I don't believe them. I then went to look at sources in states I have formerly lived and they said no one carries my stuff. I did find a source online where I can order it by the dozen. It may be time!

I have a fun night ahead, baking two pies for teachers at school and going to a MOMS gathering to share wedding albums and wine. I don't think I'll have any wine but it will be fun to look at other people's albums. OK, off to feed Will, get my stuff together for tonight, and make the pie crust before I leave at 6:45. Ta ta...

Missing my boys

These two dudes are roughing it at the 5th Grade Pine Cove Camp-out. Three days and two night of tons of dirty fun. I talked Fred into being a chaperon when they we putting the call out and saying they are always short male chaperons. Did I want to crawl under the table when they announced that they had two extra dads going? Affirmative. Fred will have a great time, I have no doubt, and Nic was thrilled to spen this time with his dad. It will all be fine.

I did receive a text message or two this afternoon so I don't think anyone is really roughing it to much. Fred mentioned that Nic appears to be a natural in a canoe. Who knew? Not sure how we can develop that natural skill or what usefulness it may serve. Do you think they have Canoe Squad college scholarships? Maybe he could row Crew at MIT? That is where he wanted to go to school until he found out that MIT stood for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was thinking it was Michigan. We'll keep on the maybe list.

OK, Will and I had a mellow afternoon. Homework, card games that neither of us remembered the rules for, and a quick trip to QT (Quick Trip gas station) for cheap gas. $1.73/gal. Will is optimistic that it will get down to $0.99. I assured him we haven't seen prices like that since I was in HS and that was a LONG time ago. A boy can dream right?

I will leave you with a few shots from the crispy house. LOTS of progress but I am still hesitant that the deadline will be made. We did test my paint choices and I found one that is a bad pick. I'll go back to the drawing board, or to Sherwin Williams, and get a new one picked soon. If things go well when we get back from Indiana my house will be colorful!

Found

This evening my neighbor was taking her hubby to the airport at just the same time that the boys were getting home from Faith Formation. As I went out to meet the boys my neighbor had a dog in her arms and asked if I knew who it belonged to. Nope, not me. Well, she had to go so I took the dog from her and the boys and I began the search.

We walked one block and knocked on a few doors and had no luck. My arms were getting tired and the boys really needed to be getting ready for bed so we headed back to the house. Buddy, as Nic dubbed him, did well enough with Pete and seemed like a well loved dog despite the fact that he had no collar. I whipped out a couple of "DOG FOUND" signs and hung them up. One went on our FOR SALE sign and the other on the closest stop sign.

Just after 9 my neighbor came home and he daughters said they thought they knew who the dog might belong to. They drove around the hood looking for this lost dog flyer that they had seen and called the number. They then came and picked me up and we took the dog to where we thought he lived. Sadly that was not Buddy's home. I felt just awful for this family, it seems that their mid-sized Schnauzer has been missing for more than 2 weeks.

Anywho, she though that the dog we had lived closer to us so we headed back to our section of the hood and my neighbor hopped out and started knocking on doors. Well, Buddy and I sat in the back and her daughters drove and navigated. Finally someone answered their door and it was Buddy's house! It seems that Buddy's mom was just giving Buddy's dad some grief for losing her dog and who knocks on her door? It was a twist of fate for sure. Well, Buddy is really Connor and he lived just across the street and down 6 houses or so.

Nic was pretty sad when I came home empty handed but he was glad that we found his home and when I explained it with Pete in the scenario he got it.

So, good deed for the day complete and I am off to bed. G-night Y'all.