Trip to College Station

Yes, it happened in November. Life was a bit crazy then, however, so the pictures from that day are just now making it to my computer. Enjoy the recap, nonetheless!

Aggieland

One month

Since today marks exactly one month since the girls and I landed here and Dayton became "home", I thought I do a little recap and record what's been going on.

I'll start with what everyone asks about: The Weather
It's cold. And wet. But it's astounding how fast we changed what our definition of comfortable is. Before we moved here, if the temperature was below 60, I was cold and wanted to stay inside. Now, the new cut off temp is 40. In a month's time, we've gone from average highs in the low 30's to the mid 40's. We even got close to 60 last weekend! But it snowed last night and hasn't gotten about 35 today. Spring is getting closer, but it's not here yet.

The House
We're making amazing progress toward getting unpacked. There are still quite a few boxes in the garage, but the vast majority of the house is unpacked - and even put away! It's amazing what can happen when I'm not stuck on the couch with morning sickness like I was when we moved in to our San Antonio house. We've unpacked many boxes that were packed in Houston, so it's been fun to rediscover our stuff. We've started painting, and I'll make sure to post before and after pictures once we're finished. I think we've picked some great colors that match our tastes while maintaining the integrity of our 1927 bungalow. Well, except for the rock and roll girls' bathroom upstairs.

The Neighborhood
It's great. The houses all are filled with character and history. The parks are fun. We walk just about every day, as long as it's not below 40 or raining. I can't wait for the spring when everything turns green. And our neighbors seem great, too. We met a bunch of them last weekend when the weather was nice and people ventured outside. There are lots of little boys on the street, so we're going to need to venture further to find some girls.

The Girls
Claire and Madeleine are adjusting very well to this big change. Madeleine doesn't get it at all, but Claire does, and I was worried about how she'd do with moving so far away from everyone she knows. We have our moments when she'll get teary and declare "I miss ______" but those moments are happening less and less frequently. She misses going to school very much, so we've found a school where she can start as soon as we want her too, and they also offer a summer program. And, even better, Madeleine will hopefully be able to go next year, too. She's on the waiting list, so we'll see. They seem to enjoy sharing a bedroom, especially in the morning when they wake up and play together and let Mommy sleep just a little bit longer. It'll be even better when Madeleine no longer eats Claire's crayons.

J
Nothing has changed for J on the job-front, with the exception of it happening in Ohio now instead of Texas. He had a great meeting with his mentor at AFIT this last week, and he's set to start classes in at least the summer, and possibly as soon as the end of March. His research sounds incredible, but that's pretty much all I can tell you because I don't have a security clearance high enough for him to tell me anything other than that.

And, Me
I'm really doing well! I like that I know I can settle in and get situated for awhile without fear of another move looming. I've joined the neighborhood moms' group, and it seems like there are a lot of potential new friends to be found there. Things are definitely moving in the right direction, and I'm sure we'll all feel even more settled a month from now.

Happy Texas Independence Day!

I don't remember ever acknowledging this event in the 30 years I lived in the state, but get us out of it for a month, and it's a big deal! In honor of the day, we'll be enjoying chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, and homemade pecan pie. I also found Shiner at Kroger! In the imported beer section, of course.

Fiesta Friday!

Cheese Enchiladas!

Nothing but trouble

About five seconds after I took this picture, 100% of the contents of that white box were all over the closet. And she accomplished that while sitting squarely on her zebra the entire time.

On the subject of Mexican food

In an effort to keep up our accents and maintain some cultural ties, I have instituted "Fiesta Friday" in our house. This means that dinner every Friday will consist of some sort of Mexican food and, much more importantly, J's famous margaritas. Last Friday, due to mountains of moving boxes, I cheated, and we ordered take out from the "best" Mexican food place in Dayton. It was passable, and will do if we're ever desperate. So today is my first real Fiesta Friday. Since the weather has been unseasonably warm, we decided that grilling fajitas would be a good, easy choice, and the girls and I headed to the grocery store this morning to get the fixings. Shouldn't be hard, right? Just meat, beans, and tortillas, pretty much. Well, welcome to Dayton.

Since time was short, I was hoping to find pre-marinaded meat. After the butcher looked at me like I was nuts for asking if he carried any (seriously, his jaw dropped open and he stopped what he was doing to stare at the weirdo with the baby tied to her back), I decided to just pick up some skirt steak and do it myself. Well, they don't sell that. Instead, the closest thing I could find is something called "flat iron steak" which looks close enough. We'll see.

Next, on to pick up rotels for Spanish rice and some refried beans. Nope, no rotels by the rest of the canned tomatoes. And, nope, no refried beans with the rest of the beans....hmmmm.....

Of course! They're on the international aisle!

Arg.

And that shredded Mexican cheese blend? It's called nacho cheese here.

And fresh jalapenos? Forget it. Only pickled.

And you know how tortilla chips constitute about 98% of the chips aisle at HEB? I only have 3 choices here, with the best being On the Border.

Amazingly enough, Kroger has a tortilla bakery thing onsite, so I picked up a pack and we'll see how they do.

I'm thinking my Fiesta Friday is going to be a bit more complicated than I had planned.

The last few weeks in review

After a long time coming, we're finally settling ourselves in for our new adventure in Ohio. J and Grandpa drove up with the pets and a 22-foot Penske a couple of weeks ago, and Grandma helped me fly up last Sunday with the girls. I am so thankful we did not have to drive. The horrible ice storm threatened them the entire way, and they pulled into Dayton just as the worst was coming. And combining that with the incessant screaming of a car-sick cat would have certainly put me over the edge. The boys worked on "little" projects around the house the rest of week, including one involving the building of a second floor to the garage accessible only by dumb waiter. You should see J get down from up there.....

When we flew in we were greeted by freezing temperatures and a layer of snow on everything. Claire was ecstatic. It was too late to go out and play that night, but she did quickly the next day when it was actually snowing.

(Yes, Mom, those are the butterfly pants....)

The novelty quickly wore off, especially when lows dipped to zero by midweek. We had a team of movers and 2 trucks show up early Tuesday morning to unload our stuff, and a new team show up for part of the day Wednesday to unpack our things. I was leery of that at first, but I'm so glad we had them come. They finished in 4 hours what it would have taken us 4 weeks to do. We spent the rest of the week organizing and checking out our new town.

Grandma and Grandpa flew back to SA on Saturday, and we spent the majority of Sunday at home, trying to put things away and organize more. The temperature got up to 55 yesterday, and the snow is starting to melt!

Today is J's first day back to work, and I'm planning to check out the Kroger. Let the fun begin!