Big Plans!

Big Plans for the next few days, Grandma & Grandpa Clark will be here tomorrow for a visit. Should be exciting since they haven't seen Annabelle in over a year! Boy are they in for some fun!
Will post pics and updates of the visit soon.

Still working on unpacking and organizing. Will the unpacking ever end? Just when you think you've unpacked the last box, another one pops up! My new philosophy is if I haven't unpacked it and I don't miss it I probably never needed it!

My little Photographer

Some pics Annabelle took tonight, I think she's an awesome photographer!!

Another South Texas Evening

We've been spending most of our days indoors and evenings outside, usually Annabelle rides her bike and then we spend some time drawing on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk. We bought a new bicycle helmet for Annabelle and she has been wearing it almost non-stop for two days, I have to beg her to take it off!

It's just to darn hot here to get out during the day except to walk from the back door to the blow up pool for a quick splash in our pool! We went to story hour again today, Annabelle had a great time. The library is putting on a puppet show on Friday so we might go check that out depending on how things are going around the house. Justin and I celebrated our 9th anniversary today, we didn't do too much since we've been putting all our efforts into our new home!

More Home Improvements

We've been working on more home improvements! Justin installed our new dishwasher, he had never installed one before and did a great job! I am so happy I have a dishwasher now! Justin is really good at the handyman stuff, I'm so glad he has the knowledge and tools to do all the repairs around this place. Justin bought a hedge trimmer for me and last night I spent the evening trimming our flowering bushes on either side of the front yard, I think I did a pretty good job considering it was my first time using an electric hedge trimmer, I actually kinda enjoyed doing it! We're still organizing and unpacking and things are starting to come together more around here. We've still been having problems with Time Warner and our internet/phone/cable tv, it was out most of Friday evening and this morning but now miraculously came back on. A serviceman is scheduled to come out on Tues., the service is really bad and I'm not really sure why? But I don't have any other choice for high speed internet and I need it for my home office. Ugghhh!

Driveway fun

Annabelle really likes our huge new driveway, she can ride her bike around it and put up her cones to drive around. It's really good that we have such a large driveway! (check out the christmas penguin backpack she's wearing, I think it's a fashion statement?)

New Stove! Yaaayyy!

Justin picked up our new stove at Sears today. We were so excited to get it since we've been grilling, microwaving, toasting and eating out since we moved here. It's so good to finally have a stove with a ceramic top, hopefully this will be the best stove I've owned! Seems like we've bought a new stove in each home we've lived in and then had to leave it behind : (
I was so excited to get it that I actually cooked mac & cheese for Annabelle & scrambled eggs for us for dinner, I didn't have much to choose from in my pantry to cook!
Justin also picked up our new dishwasher and has big plans to install it tomorrow, let's hope the installation goes well or we will be calling out a plumber. Annabelle has taken over the box the stove arrived in as her new "home"...

Crab Hat at Story Time

Today at story time we got to make this awesome crab hat. Annabelle was more excited about making a craft than the actual story reading. I guess I need to start thinking up more crafts for us to do at home!

Hot! Hot! Hot!

The weather here has been so hot lately that there's not much to do but stay inside. I filled up Annabelle's small pool with water in the backyard today and we could only be out there for 30 minutes, the weather is just too unbearably hot! Annabelle is doing really good with potty training, she has been wearing "big girl" panties since Sunday and has been accident free. I think she was already potty trained I just needed to take the step and start putting panties on her! Probably more laziness on my part than hers! We found a tiny gecko on the wall in the dining room a couple days ago, we caught it a released it on the front porch, it seems to like our house and we've seen it a few other times in the garage - I hope he's catching lots of bugs!

We hope Siti, Papa & the Qualls family are having a good time in Branson. They called this morning and said it is raining :( Hopefully the weather will clear up so they can enjoy their vacation!

Mending Fences

Justin spent most of last night and this evening fixing our fence. The gate was in desperate need of repair (it was held shut with a rock!) and there were a couple holes in the fence. He installed new fence slats and even installed a small trap door at the back of the fence so we have access to the drainage ditch and land behind the fence (actually he wants to be able to get to the ditch so he can race his gas powered remote control car!). Now Walter & Annabelle can both go out in the backyard without escaping! Yaaayyy! We're planning on adding a swingset in the fall, hopefully by then our yard will be in better shape :)

Backyard BBQ at new House

It's been hot, hot, hot here in South Texas. We don't spend much time outside except in the evening and the evenings are pretty breezy around here. Justin has been BBQing for us most nights since we haven't bought our new stove yet, plus it's just too hot to do any cooking inside!

I took Annabelle to her first story time at the Lark branch of the McAllen library today. I think she really enjoyed it and there were TONS of kids there. After we listened to two stories we got to do a special craft, this week was shark week so we got to glue a shark onto paper and color it, Annabelle thought this was lots of fun! The funniest part of the whole adventure was when the librarian asked Annabelle her name and Annabelle said "my name is peekapoo pup" I said no, that's not you're name and Annabelle told the librarian "You can call me Babe, Babe Writer"...I just about died! We're planning on going to story time every week so we can hopefully make some new friends!

Justin and I are still unpacking. Justin is focusing on the garage and has it mostly cleaned out. We also need to repair a couple slats on our privacy fence so poor Walter can go outside, he's just dying for some fresh air. I let him out for a while this morning but he tried to escape through the broken fence slat so guess he's an indoor cat for now.

I've been working out of my home office and all is going well. We bought a new desk and next I'll be buying a new office chair. It's been really nice working from my home instead of an office!

I Took the Plunge...

I resisted for many, many months and today I finally did it...I joined facebook. I tried to avoid it, friends asked me to join, I didn't want to do it, it would just be one more thing to keep track of...but it was to irresistible, so I am now on facebook everyone!

More unpacking took place today. I still have not found my battery charger. It's looking pretty bleak, I might have to buy a new one. Uggghh. We shopped for new office furniture today at three different office stores with no success. I guess I'm just too picky when it comes to office chairs but there just aren't many choices out there. Guess I'll stick to my old brown plastic school chair for now!

Made it!

After spending the night in Austin, Justin drove the rest of the way to McAllen today and arrived hot and tired around noon today. He thinks the problem with the truck is related to the A/C so he drove most of the way with no A/C. We are so glad he made it!

Today we unpacked a few more boxes and went out for dinner. The restaurant was overpriced and not good so we will mark that one off our list. There are lots of choices of restaurants and shopping around here, it's mind boggling how many shops/restaurants/strip malls there are! We stopped at a different Target tonight and picked up a few things we needed, I think there are at least 3 Targets near us which makes me really, really happy!

I can't seem to find the battery charger for my digital camera batteries so haven't been able to take any pictures lately. Hopefully I will find that soon so I can post some photos! Mosquitos here are really bad, Annabelle has three bites on her face that look pretty bad, the mosquitos have even found there way into our house. We're going to have to find some sort of repellent to keep them away from the house!

Trying to get the Truck to McAllen

We woke up extra early today and drove Justin to the airport for his flight to OKC to pick up our truck and drive it to McAllen. His flight was at 7:30 a.m. so we had to be at the airport by 6:30 a.m. Annabelle wasn't too thrilled about the 20 minute early morning drive to the airport but she was wide awake by the time we got home. Justin called around 6 p.m. to say he was stopping at a gas station and he was in Austin, he would be home around midnight, 10 minutes later he called to say he was on the side of the road, the truck would not accelerate. Luckily there was a hotel just a few miles down the road, he limped the truck to the hotel & he was able to get a room for the night. He had had this same problem once before with the truck and usually if he lets it cool down for a couple hours it runs fine again. So, he called again at 8 p.m. to say the truck was now running fine and he will be leaving Austin in the morning and heading toward McAllen, hopefully the truck will continue to run long enough to make it to McAllen tomorrow. If not, I will be making a quick road trip to pick him up! The worst part of the drive will be the last three hours driving through desert terrain with nothing out there and nowhere to stop, I'm hoping the truck doesn't quit in the middle of the dessert in 109 degree heat. Justin will have his cell phone and I've instructed him to call me every hour so I can know where he's located in case there are no cell phone towers out in the middle of nowhere! Oh, and I forgot to mention, the truck has no fuel gage so Justin has to stop every 250 miles to fill it up...we probably should've just sold the truck and bought a new one!! Oh well, live and learn!
I've been working on unpacking, very challenging with a 2 year old who thinks everything is hers! I've also been trying to work on my ads at night and during naptime which can be a challenge too, but so far, so good with that!

Say a little prayer that Justin makes it home safely tomorrow afternoon!

Pics of the Big Move

We Made It!

What day is it anyway? I have totally lost track of time and days, the move is finally complete, we are in our new home slowly unpacking. Justin is hanging curtains as I type, we're trying to get bathroom curtains and office curtains in (they are a priority). It was a long two day trip with the Penske truck - we will never do that again! We stopped outside Austin on our first night, it was very late so we stopped at a Holiday Inn Express for the night. We weren't sure what we were going to do with poor Walter, he was already stressed after the 6 hour drive so we didn't want to leave him out in a cage in the sweltering Texas heat by himself all night, after all, he is a member of the family! Since our room was on the third floor of the hotel with only a few ways in I wasn't sure how I was going to get the Big Guy in without getting caught. I ended up sneaking him in inside a duffle bag. I think he was okay with anything as long as it wasn't more car ride! He had a great night in the hotel sleeping with us. I even made him a makeshift litter box out of the drink tray in the hotel room - caution: never drink from the cups on the cup tray in a hotel, you never know what the tray was used for! Walter has been acting great since we arrived at the new house, we think he's gone into early retirement. Justin is pretty bruised up from all the moving, he is so tired and pretty stressed. He unpacked most of the truck in the sweltering heat of the day, only two guys showed up to help us and one left after only about an hour and the other left after the truck was half unpacked! We got up early this morning and went to the closing on the new house, after that we went to city hall to get utilities moved into our name, we returned the truck and signed insurance papers, the cable tv/internet/phone guy came by and ran new lines so we would be connected. Thank goodness Siti & Papa were here with us to watch Annabelle (by the way she only wants to be called "Babe Writer" now, not Annabelle). Siti and Papa will be staying here in McAllen until at least Monday. Siti did a great job of driving even though she's not a pro, she only almost hit us once, she slammed on the brakes and the car made a screeching sound, Annabelle said "what was that?" and I said "that was Siti, she almost hit us" Annabelle said "Siti probably only needs to drive in Kansas, not Texas!"...so true! Papa did great, I'm sure they are both worn out from all this hassle. Next time they come to visit we hope they will have more time to relax! Tomorrow we hope to get a little rest! We have lots of work to do here, the place is a little dusty and dirty and needs some love so we'll be spending a lot of time sprucing things up around here. Anyone want to come help unpack??