When is it acceptable to go to church topless?

When you're goin' in a Jeep!

Yes, Jesse finally got his Jeep, and as I'm sure you can tell, he is pretty happy with it.  This is the third time he has taken the doors off in the past week, but the first time we've gotten to roll with the top down.  It was about 60 when we left for church, and windy windy windy, like always.  Jesse kept making fun of me the whole way to church, because the wind was coming from the south, which meant when we were driving east through town, the wind was hitting me full on the side of the face and going up my nose, so I kept plugging my nose because it felt like a tornado in my sinuses.  We had barely gotten onto the highway on the way home (now headed west, so the driver's side had no windbreak), when Jesse started laughing and plugging his nose...this really is not capturing the comedy of the moment.  His eyes were watering, and he kept blinking and looked so surprised...

"You didn't say it was suffocating!"  "I told you there was a tornado in my nose, what did you expect?"

Anyway.  We got a laugh out of it the whole way home.  Jesse was even drooling by the time we made it onto our road.  He had a leg stuck out the side, hair standing on end...He got the dog look down pat.  We did decide that the doors are going to stay on until it warms up a little more, though.

Side note.  Baptists really like the word "amen".  They holler it out at random and I don't understand it.
Pastor: "Every one of those guys had a child dead at home!"
Various congregation members: "Amen!"
Pastor: "I just get worked up about this."
Various congregation members: "Amen!"
Pastor: "Snack Packs were made for me."
Various congregation members: "Amen!"
Inigo Montoya (in my head): "You keep saying that word; I don't think you know what it means."

I felt like I had so many things to share with you, but now I seem to be drawing a blank.......

Last Sunday we drove out to Strawn and looked around at a couple houses.  We didn't go inside any, but we poked around a couple.  There's a little white one just around the corner from Jason and Mandy's place that is cute and cheap, but from looking in the windows, it looks like a hobbit house.  Like the one Frodo got in Buckland.  The ceilings are super low and the windows almost come to the floor.  It's odd.  But Jason says it would be easy to raise the ceilings, so we will see where that goes.  They're asking around for us, seeing what else is available.  I'm not in a huge hurry to move that far from work, or to add house payments onto everything we have going on, or to give up $250/mo rent, either, but it's good to know our options.  And it would be nice to live in a place that doesn't let snow come under the door, or have pipes burst once a month, and such.

Having house payments would be much less stressful if I had a regular job.  I love working at party planet, and I love subbing, but it's hard not knowing how much income I'm going to bring in from month to month.  However, all last week and all of next week, I was booked to sub for one Mrs. Gray, the first grade teachers' aide.  Basically I spend 45 minutes a day in each of the first grade classrooms, make copies, run errands, grade papers, give tests to obnoxious kids that make fun of my shoes (I've never had 6 yr olds make fun of me before.  There is a mean little group that I got stuck giving tests last week.  We don't get along super well.), stuck pieces of velcro to laminated words, kick the copier, and play Super Duck with Skyler.

Skyler and I have become friends.  He's in Mrs. Brooks' class.  I feel bad for Mrs. Brooks.  I subbed for her once, and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  She definitely has a tough job.  Skyler is one of her two special ed kids, and he is just the sweetest thing ever, but he needs a lot of attention, so whenever I have spare time I've been heading over to her class to try to keep him occupied.  He's a smart kid.  He's great at math, but has trouble focusing long enough to get any reading done.  Anyway, he's been my companion, and I will be sorry to leave him next week.

But back to where I was going with this.  My first job of the day as Mrs. Gray is to help with breakfast in Mrs. Underwood's room.  Mrs. Underwood is a very nice lady.  She's been teaching for pretty much always, and she's very thorough in her explanations of what she needs done, which is fantastic, and she decided pretty much the first day that she liked me, I guess.  Like everyone does, she asked me what if I'm going to school, if I have a teaching license, and if I want to be a teacher.  Like I tell everyone, I'm not sure I want the responsibility of being a teacher, but I love being in the schools, and I'm still figuring out what I want to do with myself here in Texas.  And that was when she asked me what I thought about the idea of being an aide.  I've said before that being an aide would probably be the best job ever, and after a week of doing it I'm even more convinced of that.  Come to find out, Mrs. Gray is retiring this year, which means there will be a position opening up for an aide next year.  Mrs. Underwood has been very insistent that I ought to look into it.  She has told me countless times now that working as an aide would be a great way to decide if I wanted to become a teacher, that the district would help me pay for school if I was an aide, that as an aide I would get benefits, that I would just be so good at it, that I really need to talk to Mrs. Johnson (the principal), that it's just something to think about, but that she really encourages it.  She is quite the salesman.

By my second day on the job Mrs. Brooks had asked me the same questions.  She had some different answers, though.  I told her about my former plans of developmental psychology, and she told me about one of the counselors there at East who is fantastic and would love to talk to me about going into something like that, if I wanted to.  She said that her daughter always wanted to be a teacher, but after talking with that counselor has decided to go into family psychology.

"You know, she's seen me as a teacher all her life, but I keep telling her 'you are so smart, you could do anything!  They will take advantage of you, they will not appreciate you, you are too smart to be a teacher.'  I have forbidden her from becoming a teacher."

and then in almost the same breath

"You really should be a teacher!  You would be a great teacher."

I've decided to just see the compliment in that...She meant it as one, I know.  When I told her that I was thinking about applying for Mrs. Gray's job she started to say something about how she's "just an aide", and then she got really excited and said "Oh yeah!  Come be Mrs. Gray and save my life!"  It seems I have at least two teachers as my own personal cheerleaders.

Mrs. Johnson was gone for a couple days, but I managed to catch her in her office Friday as I was leaving, and asked her about the aide job, and whether it really was going to be available and all that.  This is getting really long and my computer is dying, so I will wrap it up by saying that she also made a comment that she would love to "be selfish and keep [me] all to [herself]", and printed out an application for me on the spot.  The position hasn't officially been posted yet, because Mrs. Gray hasn't officially retired yet, and once it is, who knows how many people will apply, but I have a feeling that I have a decent shot at it, since I already work for the district they know me, they say they want me...all that jazz.  So hopefully soon (well, in September) I will have a real, full-time job, and buying a house will be much easier on my conscience.  Plus, I'll get to play personal assistant to a bunch of teachers.  Pretty much the best job ever.

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty!"

You know those days when you get up, and you do your whole morning thing, you know, facebook, breakfast, sit ups, shower, all that jazz, and you're all awake and a little bit sore, and clean, and you just feel fantastic?  Well today was one of those days.  I got plenty of sleep (fell asleep reading when Jesse left for work and didn't actually get out of bed until 10:30), did my little workout, took time to stretch, and all that...and I felt pretty.  And then I looked in the mirror, and I remembered that feeling great and looking great do not always go hand in hand.  My bangs were half stuck up in my bun, and my face was all blotchy, but I felt good, so whatever.

Lately I feel like Cristin's selfie obsession has rubbed off.  Jesse says she's ridiculous (sorry, Cristin), and I'm afraid of what he might be thinking.  But then I remember that he always says what he's thinking, so I guess when he thinks I'm ridiculous he'll tell me.  Like last night when he told me that he was tired of hearing me talk about thinking about going to Disneyland, or not going, or maybe going, so now I have to go.  I don't suppose I have mentioned that...Raelyn and Cristin and I think Rae's friend Hannah Hoover are planning a sister trip to Disneyland (even though none of those three are actually related...) and they have extended the invitation to me.  Rae is obsessed with Disneyland.  She talks about it all the time, and probably believes that it is the cure to cancer, or something.  We did discuss the possibility of me contracting a fatal disease and convincing Make-A-Wish to send us all to Disneyland, but Rae said it wouldn't work.  Anyway, we worked out a budget, and realized that we spend more money that either of us realized, even with our $250/mo rent.  It would be hard to maintain our current standard of living if we had to find a real place to live.  However, even with our enormous gasoline expenses, we still have managed a budget for Jesse's jeep payments, a set amount of money to save each month for buying a house some day, and we have any income that I bring in as our fun money, which can be very different from month to month, but should enable me to save up enough for Disneyland in 3 or 4 months, I hope.  And just think of all the selfies that will be born out of that trip!

If all goes according to plan, we will convince Charissa to go with us as well, so we will have two photographers, which will surely result in very thorough documentation.  As you all know, nothing makes me happy like well documented adventures.  Hence this blog...I don't know if you can call it good documenting, but at least I have a record, however random.

I hope you enjoy my ramblings as much as I do.  Recounting our adventures helps me feel connected to all of you at home, and I love having you a part of my life, even in this abstract form.  Life is going by so fast...all these babies are growing up and looking just like the babies that came before them.  Next thing you know you all will be watching our little Texans growing up and getting married and having babies of their own!

Anyway, I guess the point of my sentimental baby talk is just that for now I'm looking forward to staying a baby a little while longer, and going to the happiest place on earth and acting like a child with my sisters, and someday we will all go back with our own babies and put the pictures together and say "you look so much like your aunt!" and it will be happy.

Poker Night.

During our time in Texas  I have become a hustler.

Ha!  Joking.  Apparently Mandy is the hustler, or so Jason says.  And Jody and Mel are the real poker players, which is why they have decided to start hosting poker night on a semi-regular basis.  Last time I had to work, but this time I actually turned down work in order to go to poker night.  Crazy, right?  In preparation, Jason has been training Jesse, and Jesse has been training me.  Jesse's training consisted of explaining to me what sorts of hands exist, and then saying "you know the hands?  Well you're fine, then" and telling me to download a poker game on my phone.  Super helpful.

Anyway, by putting together my knowledge of cribbage and yatzee, I had a small understnading of what he was talking about, and after playing some on my phone, I realized that poker really isn't my cup of tea.  I don't understand why people want to bet on cards that they haven't even seen, it stresses me out, and I just don't feel like it's really something I would enjoy.  So I didn't play, but I baked bread.

I was feeling so on top of things yesterday at about noon!  I had gotten up, taken Jesse to work, fed and walked Jlyn's dog, worked out, taken a shower, curled my hair, done the dishes, bleached my sinks, done a load of laundry, and was starting two different kinds of bread and a pan of lemon bars.  Domesticity is grand.  I used every mixing bowl in my kitchen, kept up on the dishes, was putting fresh rosemary from my own little rosemary bush in the bread...So pleased with myself.

"Pride goeth before a fall", I do believe I have heard somewhere.  The regular bread took two hours to rise, instead of one, and still wasn't very fantastic.  I used egg whites instead of whole eggs in my lemon bars, and the consistency was all spongey.  Then it was suddenly time to go get Jesse from work and I hadn't put either of the breads in the oven.  The rolls needed to bake for half an hour and the other bread for 40 minutes, but at different temperatures.  So I flaked on my wifely duties, and abandoned Jesse.  He didn't seem to hurt about it, he just went home with Jason and said he'd "meet me at Jody's or something".

While waiting for the bread to be done, I started voxing with Cristin and Bubba and everyone at the ranch.  It was lovely.  Bubba kept saying "you are at Texas" and talking about orange tractors.  

His voice sounds sooooo much like Joy's!  It's crazy.  They have the same little "heh heh heh heh!" laugh, and always say "helllooooo?" through their noses...I can't explain it.  I wish I could embed sounds in a blog, but I don't know how to do that, even if I could get them off my phone.

All that voxing caused two things to happen: my phone started to die, and I almost burned the bread.  At almost 5:00, I finally gathered up all of my various baked goods (which is when I realized that I had forgotten to put the garlic in the potato rosemary bread!), and went to Jlyn's house to feed Buckshot before going over to Jody and Mel's...

This story could get long and boring, so suffice it to say that I got there and discovered a large amount of feces in the hallway.  That was a smelly delay, and one more addition to my growing frustration at myself.  It was at about this point that I decided trying to be domestically awesome is not as awesome as it always seems.

Anyway...poker night!

Jody, Jesse, Jason, and James all work together, and were the four heads of the four families that converged for poker night.  The J's always seem to stick together...It really was a good time.  James came and BBQ'd ribs, Mel made spaghetti, Mandy brought snacks...and I actually socialized for a short period of time with Mel and Mandy.  Cray cray!  Jason and his family all think I'm weird and antisocial, and all that jazz.  For some reason my social awkwardness goes through the roof whenever we go out to Strawn.  I made an attempt to disillusion them.  I'm not sure if it worked.  But babies are great ice breakers.  I got to hold Eli for the first time!  I don't know why I never had before...I guess I didn't want to just walk into their house and take their baby.  You never know when people will take that badly.  But I hadn't held a baby since December, and it was past time.  I was at work the other day, watching someone hold a baby, and realized I had the bounce going on just watching.  It was bad.  Thankfully I managed to keep up my reputation as Baby Whisperer.

"I got the magic in me"

I picked him up and he fell right to sleep. And then he woke up.  But he was still pretty happy.  He's five months, so he's just at that point where he's trying to move around, and actually laughing a little bit and stuff.  I didn't play poker, so I was content to hang out with the baby most of the night.  And when I did pass him off I ended up doing puzzles with James' oldest daughter (she's 3) and almost falling asleep on the couch with Ashley.  But Kian started throwing train tracks around the room and pretty well killed that idea.

So I guess I don't have much to say about poker, really, except that it doesn't look that great, but it was good to be around people.  I definitely pumpkined, though, before we went home at almost 12:30.  Next time I will have to make it a point to go home before sprouting green tendrils.

"Up where the air is clear!"

Oh let's go fly a kite!
Jesse had an idea this evening, which has spawned even bigger ideas.
It was windy, as it usually is here, and he decided to pull out the kite that for some reason was buried in my dresser drawer under all my sweatpants.

"I've never actually flown a kite before."  "Then why do you have one?"  "It's my mom's."

Vee, if you are wondering where your kite is, Jesse brought it to Texas.  He then began dreaming of a giant kite that would be able to carry small children up into the air, large enough to need to be anchored on the ground with a car.  That fantastic train of thought eventually led to a nice little chat about balsa wood, a very lightweight wood (lightweight because it has large cells containing water which evaporates over a couple weeks, resulting in natural air pockets) that is used to make glider planes, wind turbines, and table tennis paddles.  That chat let to the decision that we should make a kite out of balsa wood (on the condition that it is not super expensive) that would be strong enough to carry a GoPro camera.  Jesse also talked about lighter than air and plastic and made shapes with his hands that all looked the same....yeah.  I am definitely the researcher, he is the designer.  But I'm ok with that.  I get the general idea.

Actually, I seem to be his personal secretary.  I went in to the shop this morning and hung out in Jody's and Kent's offices, taping receipts to papers and messing around with excel.  Fun stuff.  I don't mind it, really.  It's spring break, and I always enjoy an excuse to get out of the house and spend time around people.

While I was there, Jody asked if he could order lemon bars from me.  He's basically in love with my lemon bars, and apparently he's been craving desserts all week.  He had cheesecake for dinner last night, and has a bunch of cupcakes in the fridge and wants Mel to make him cookies.  She said all he's been talking about for days are cakes and cookies.

I went and hung out with Mel and the boys after I was done at the shop, and before I went back to pick Jesse up after work.  He had to return the company car after the Ohio trip, so I had to bring him home in the Tahoe.  Kian and I caught two grasshoppers, and one of them pooped.  Kian was pretty excited about that last little fact...

And that basically brings you up to date on our Great Texas Adventures.  We tried to buy a Jeep this weekend and it didn't work out, but we did buy a GPS, which makes our lives and navigating Texas freeways so much happier.  And now I'm off to attempt kettle corn, because we finally bought an air popper and normal popcorn.  No more burnt microwave popcorn for this girl!  Jesse isn't used to it, says it tastes different, but he'll come around.

Friday.

The sunrise was beautiful this morning!

The sun is shining, and I'm sitting on the back steps, mostly sheltered from the wind, wearing shorts, curls

Ice cream makers:
The most deliciously mesmerizing things ever!

blowing in the breeze, enjoying a tiny bowl of berries with fresh, homemade French vanilla ice cream. The only thing that could possibly make this better would be if Jesse was here. But he missed his flight this morning and had to catch a later one that put him a couple hours behind, and on top of that, he has to take Jason back to Strawn when they finally do get here, so it's gonna be a late night. Instead of landing in Abilene right about now, they are somewhere between Oklahoma and DFW, and it will be another 5 or 6 hours before I get to see him. As Cristin said, the odds are not in my favor, today. As further proof of that fact, the washing machine hose that I bought this morning doesn't seem to be working, so the washer is still leaking. 

Oh yeah, did I mention that? After the pipes were fixed and the kitchen fosset replaced, the washing machine hose started leaking and the plumber didn't have one to fix it with, so I tried. That was my manly deed for the day. It ended in a bunch of mopping and my decision to do what every good wife does...wait for the husband to deal with it. That's why I got married, right? He probably thinks so, poor guy.

But at least my hair looks fantastic, and I remembered to shave my legs, so I can actually take advantage of the shorts weather! It's the little things in life, man.

More good news, I'm getting to start doing private lessons with Zoe, the daughter of one of the Party Planet owners! She is a wonderfully talented girl, competitive cheerleaders, plays volleyball, student of the month, all that jazz. She picks things up very quickly, especially jumps. But I almost made her cry when I tried to get her to turn out and not fall back in releve. I tried to explain to her that she will hurt her ankles if she does that, but cheer is a flat footed sport, for the most part, and the whole concept is foreign to her. I have every confidence that she will get it, though, after some tears and many frustrations.

My other class has fluctuated a lot, and I have lost all my originals, but I gained another new one this week,

and I'm hoping it will continue growing. I do enjoy the small classes, but they have their own set of difficulties, compared to larger classes. It's all a learning experience, for sure. I have been trying to take advantage of my free time and free space lately, and have started dancing a little bit on my own in my little studio. It's hard to keep up a love for what you do when you're always doing things at a beginner level. You can't forget yourself in a beginning dance class...they're always watching. It's kinda scary, not gonna lie. But overall, things are going well. All the kids in town like me, and working weekends at Party Planet has helped me get to know them a little better. I hate having Jesse gone, but it has forced me to spend time with other people, and I think it has been good for me. I even made an appointment to get my hair cut on Tuesday...just like a grown up! I need Lela to just move here and be my personal hairdresser. That would suit me just fine.

Is it spring yet?

No, it will never be spring.  I don't think Texas believes in spring.  Winter is going to drag along until it decides it's summertime, and then it will suddenly be 100 degrees at midnight.  That's my prediction.
In other news...Jesse will be home in 3 days!  And a good thing, too.  My freezers are bursting, and I don't cook enough when he's gone.  Speaking of bursting...Guess what happened again yesterday?  You got it!  The pipes froze because I'm too cheap to heat this giant, drafty house, and water started coming from the bottom of the water heater.  Worst part of it was that it interrupted my skyping with the kids.

Fortunately, I am not completely helpless, and I was able to get the water shut off before more than a couple gallons escaped.  It wasn't gushing, like the last couple times.  But that is where my ability ends.  I mopped up the mess and called Kent.  Like a good landlord, he moseyed over after work with his box of goodies, and discovered that he could do basically nothing about it at all.  Yay me!  So I texted Mel and told her that I was coming over to take a shower.

That is one nice thing that has come of Jesse being gone.  I have spent rather a lot of time with Mel and the kids, and it has been lovely.  They tried to convince me to stay with them while he was gone, but I like my own bed an awful lot.  However, with no water and a freezing cold house, it was very nice to know that I had a place to go.  They are amazing people, and have fed me so many times this week!  That's probably part of why I haven't been cooking.  I can just go to Jody's and there's always rice and some sort of protein.

They've also decided to start hosting poker nights, and I've been informed that I have to learn how to play poker, especially now that most of our people have gone back West.  How hard can it be?  I know I've been taught before...It'll be like riding a bike.
Anyway, I have chicken and rice in the oven that is probably burning.
Over and out.