Summer - Part 2

The temple is less than an hour from us now.  We went to walk around the grounds.  I don't know why we even bother attempting anything outside unless it's the pool.  It's just too hot.  It wasn't really that enjoyable because it was scorching hot.  It really is a beautiful temple, though.

 

After looking through all my pictures I realized what a boring summer we had.  Most of the rest of the pictures I took are from our theme weeks.  We really just swam a lot, napped a lot, and watched movies a lot. There wasn't much to do in a 2 bedroom apartment without all of our stuff.  Once we moved in, we spent most of our time unpacking.  It's been almost a month and I'm not done.  I don't even know if I'll hang anything on the walls.  This is house #13.  It used to be fun unpacking, figuring out where everything goes.  This time has not been fun.  I found myself in tears simply because I am so sick and tired of unpacking and unpacking.  I feel like a crazy person.  I think what sent me over the edge is knowing we aren't permanent here either, so I kept picturing myself just packing it all up again in a year.  Even if we decide to stay in Houston longer than a year or two, we're renting right now, so if we buy, we'll just be doing it again.  And if we leave Houston, we move.  It's super not fun.  I have considered just getting rid of all of my decorations.  I used to enjoy decorating.  It doesn't sound fun right now.  I really just want to run away to the mountains.

 

Actually, my low point was the kitchen.  We moved into a house that's a little bigger, yet the kitchen is smaller.  I have less cupboards, and they're not as wide, and they're not as deep.  My pantry is probably less than half the size.  Before we moved I de-junked the kitchen.  I got rid of everything I didn't use.  I got rid of stuff I did use, that I knew I could live without.  That was about three boxes worth.  As I started unpacking here, and realized not everything fit, I got rid of more stuff.  Stuff I would like to keep, but decided to live without.  Another two boxes worth of stuff.  I'm not a hoarder.  I don't hang onto things for years and years that I don't use.  I keep my counter space clutter free for the most part.  But somehow I still can't fit it all in the kitchen.  I wasn't sad about getting rid of stuff, it's just stuff, it was just so overwhelming.  Who knew unpacking a kitchen could drive a person in tears to bed?  Anyway, I'm not complaining.  I've decided to give up complaining.  I'm just saying, moving is a pain.  And whoever designed this house gets a failing grade.  They didn't do a very good job of using the space, as opposed to our old house.  Whoever designed that house gets an A+.  The upside of having lived in so many homes is that we have a pretty good idea of what our dream home will be like.

The kids think it's fun.

We have pictures of all our babies like this.



Summer - Part 1

I have a lot to catch up on.  I didn't have a computer to upload pictures to most of the summer, and then once it was set up it wouldn't read my photo card.  So now that that's taken care of, here's a rundown of our summer.

 

I think I wrote before about our last night in South Carolina.  The kids caught fireflies in our backyard until really, really late.  It was so magical, that was my favorite night of our entire summer.  Sidney was running around like this, she was like a little fairy, couldn't have fit the evening any better.

Fireflies in mason jars-you can't get more southern than that.

 

The next day we drove straight through to Houston.  It took us about 19 hours.  We left at night.  Josh drove all night while I slept then I took over the next day while he slept.  Jayden's goal was to stay up all night.  We didn't think he'd be able to, but at 4:00 a.m., Josh had to force him to turn off the IPad and go to sleep.  The kids actually did really great.  When we left, I surprised myself and didn't cry.  I must have gotten it all out beforehand.  This move has been one of the hardest.  I left a piece of my heart behind.  I have left pieces of my heart all over the country, but a really big chunk of it is there.

 

A week after we got here, Josh's company had a night at the Sugar Land Skeeters baseball game.  They're a minor league team.  Despite the 105 degrees, we headed out, where we only lasted two innings.  We watched about a minute of the game because there was a splash pad and a buffet and a really cool bathroom stall, so who has time for a game?  The kid's faces were bright red about 10 minutes after arriving just from sitting there.  And when I say it was 105, the heat index was definitely higher, like 109.

I'm a little embarrassed to be posting pictures of a toilet, and I hope I never do again, but how fun is this stall?

 

We camped out for a month and a half in Josh's bachelor pad.  It wasn't too bad.  We swam a lot.

 

We celebrated Josh's birthday and our anniversary in July.  Not much to talk about there.  Jayden likes to give gag gifts, so he gave Josh some nail polish.  He couldn't stop laughing.  For our anniversary, Josh had to go back to Charlotte to deal with the movers.  So while I sat in his bachelor pad cooking a frozen burrito with the kids, he went through a drive-thru and ate alone.  The sad thing is, this is pretty typical.  The other sad thing is, I wasn't that sad about it.  We have been apart before on anniversaries.  It's life.  We know we love each other, and we have our whole lives to show each other, and that's all that matters.

 

We drove down to the beach one Saturday.  We were spoiled in South Carolina with really nice beaches.  Texas beaches are Texas beaches.  But we're only about an hour away, and the kids didn't know the difference.  We had a lot of fun.

 

 I have more, and I'll get to it later.



Shyann in the Bedroom with the Rolled up Newspaper

I murdered one of these today. 

 

Yes, murdered. 

 

And if you've ever murdered a bug, you'll know what I'm talking about. 

 

 

Actually, I don't think this is the exact thing I murdered, but I can't remember what Josh said it was so I can't find a picture of it, but it was this terrifying. 

 

And they're not kidding when they say everything is bigger in Texas.  And that's not always a good thing.