Trending in Texas

In case you missed all of the latest updates (ack!! because I am so behind on blogging)….we have moved and we are now back in Seth’s native land of Texas. We are re-acclimating back to BBQ, Tex-Mex, mosquitoes, southern accents, very erratic weather and all other Texas joys!

I know you have all heard this but just in case you haven’t, this week Blue Bell ice cream was recalled again. Seriously folks, if you aren’t from Texas you just don’t understand. People are very worked up about this. Lucky for Blue Bell they have such loyal customers that I am pretty sure most are worked up about waiting for ice cream and there is hardly a soul ticked about the listeria. Priorities. I told Seth someone should do an independent study to see how much weight Texans lose in the absence of Blue Bell. I saw someone on Facebook who said they have never had a birthday in 35 years without it so they would postpone their celebration! Ha!

We braved a few Texas snow days and now we have moved on to  the bluebonnets!!! Here are a few pictures we snagged from a neighbor who offered mini photo sessions a few weeks ago. Our own family attempt ended abruptly with a bee sting, a screaming baby (not the bee sting victim), and a too cool for school not going to smile child. So we opted for the mini session and her results were much sweeter!  Caitlan Salerno is a great photographer for you local folks! She is super flexible and can come to you for family photos. (and she didn’t pay me a penny to say that)

IMG_0090 IMG_0072 IMG_0016 IMG_0034 IMG_0014 IMG_0019

 

IMG_0107

 

Jackson and Owen have adjusted well to their new schools and Seth has been enjoying the momentum of his new job. The boys have been busy with sports practice and MaryAnne is thriving on running the show! She is a climber and a great “helper”. She is talking lots and her favorite pastime is tracking down the boys and calling “BOYS” as she heads their way. They mostly welcome her with lots of love….unless she grabs the remote. My days are spent mostly busing kids to and from school and I am getting antsy to make some friends in our new hood!

Texas is feeling more like home! The swing set is up (our marriage survived the reassembly!) and the garden is in. Now to slow down and  let some roots begin to grow.  We are trying to get out in the cooler weather now, knowing that we are no where near prepared for the heat to come.


read more

Since we will be stateside for a bit this was a treat to do one last homeleave before the next phase.  Seth spent most of his leave painting and working on the house but he snuck in a few fun days before that all began. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger. I haven’t learned how to do a collage and the thumbnails cut off some of the pictures but this was WAY too many pictures to put in full size and in a zillion posts. Sorry for the photo dump!

We started in Friendswood with Seth’s family! We made it to an Astros game which made Seth’s heart content. Oh yes, and he had some Whataburger too. What more could a guy ask for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

on our way to Ft Worth we popped in and saw our friends Bo and Leigh and their little girls! Their new home is so beautiful and was such a welcoming space!

 

 

 

 

Seth stayed in Ft Worth for a couple of days with us and then packed up and drove a penske up with his dad to get going on painting and getting the house liveable!  While he was away we went to the Ft Worth zoo, got spoiled with my moms good cooking, went to Glenrose, Texas to look for dinosaur tracks in the river at the State park, spent time with my brother and my sister-in-law Tina and weathered the heat of the Texas summer!   We also got to catch up with good friends from our old Dallas days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

part way through our time in Ft Worth we went away to my sister-in-law Tina’s family lake house in Possum Kingdon! On the wall of their kitchen they have a quote that summed up the weekend: “Home is where you treat friends like family and your family like friends”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our time in Ft Worth the boys and I headed back to Friendswood where we spent a few more days with Seth’s mom and had some great cousin time. It happened to be Jackson’s birthday so we celebrated there. I had planned to keep it REALLY simple and it was but Jackson started asking about invitations and friends and DADDY so by the end of the day our fun frozen yogurt outings with cousin morphed into a pizza/swimming party to lessen the blow of a birthday during a move.

 

 

 

 

These weeks were packed and exhausting but so fun too. I learned pretty fast that I don’t enjoy being a single mom and that it was very hard to be away while Seth was working on the house. I am so happy to be here now working together and making progress towards being settled!!

 


read more

Hi folks, we are alive, we are well, we are settling in….and we are still without internet. I haven’t forgotten about all of you and I have 2 months of photos and life to share with you. But internet doesn’t come for a week so I will sneak to Starbucks around the corner when I can but it will likely be a few weeks of catchup! In the meantime….we are loving our new home, our boys are peacefully settling in and SLEEPing again, we miss our dear friends in Switzerland, we are enjoying reuniting with dear friends here in NoVa, we made lots of happy memories (with minimal heat stroke) in Texas and our hands are covered with paint from the endless house projects!! Life is busy and good! More to come! Thanks for bearing with me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find me blogging on World Moms Blog this week….www.worldmomsblog.com. They have a new fancy schmancy website so hop on over if you have time!


read more

Happy Friday folks! Sorry for the here and there this week. Let’s just say that once we thought we were in the clear with jetlag we had some throw up action and we have a 2 year old that is persisting to get out of his bed. As in from 3Am on over and over and over again. In addition to the crazy sleep stuff we have had that bi-yearly surge in defiance and attitude from a certain oldest child and tantrums and teething from a certain 2 year old. It is a recipe for some insanity I tell you.  It is getting better SLOWLY but we are so very tired…thus, less posting about fun things!

But for some Friday fun I thought I would tell you about Canton!  For those of you that are not from Texas (I’m not technically, but I claim the state for my husband) you may have never heard of Canton.  Canton is a town in Texas that hosts First Mondays. It’s about 2 hours outside of Ft Worth where we were recently visiting my family. Here is the link  for First Monday Trade Days in Canton. I linked you to the Shopper’s page. I love how they give advice on how to dress in layers, etc. It is quite a mission to go to Canton but really worth it if you can get friends to go too!

It’s the most amazing flea market ever and it’s HUGE. There are organized pavilions of goodies plus lots of outdoor setups with lots of lots of junk treasures!!!You can find just about anything at Canton. Kitchen gadgets, house decor, clothes plants, pets, and on and on. And for the most part the food is all fair food like kettle corn, corn dogs (known as Corny dogs in Texas), turkey legs and funnel cakes.

I have been a couple of times and when I realized that the timing would line up to go over our Texas trip I was delighted! This time I went with my mom and my sister-in-law Tina and her mom, Lisa. We left groggy and excited at 6:30 in the morning. We picked up Lisa and headed to Starbucks…and then to Chickfila. Caffeine and nourishment. We were set.  We chatted away as we drove and arrived in time to be some of the first in the parking lot and in the shops. It was chilly when we started but warmed up quickly. We could not have asked for better weather. Did I mention that Seth graciously told me to go and had the kids for the day?!  It was SO nice to have a day away not worrying about feeding the kids, nap vs. no naps, yada, yada. And it is rare that my mom is off work and able to get away, so it was a huge treat that she came!

It was fun going to Canton this time around knowing we will have a home of our own soon to decorate. I came away with 3 botanical prints, a few vintage dishtowels, an old door (not a full size but a smaller one) that I hope to turn into a coffee table if Seth humors me, an old Dr. Pepper crate, an old wire lamp shade frame and some other little treasures.

Here are a few shots from the day. I didn’t even take my camera because I didn’t want it to weigh me down and hold me back from any spectacular deals….so Tina kindly snapped a few shots on her iphone. Next time I will force myself to take my camera because you just can’t imagine what all you see!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is a baby goat someone had dressed up for a walk around canton. we thought for sure she was selling it. I’m telling you, you see the strangest things at Canton. You could spend a day just people watching! Of course it might have been more exciting to me in terms of people watching after living in straight-laced Switzerland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

redneck wine glasses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and here is the old door, can’t you all just see the potential?! Tina bought a full-sized door and drilled it into the wall as a headboard.

If you are ever in Texas swing by Canton.  In a couple of years I am going to try to talk my other SIL, Stephanie into flying to Texas with me for another Seckinger/Dyer ladies shopping day!

In other shopping news, I talked Seth into driving to Heidelberg tomorrow to do our 4 month monster shopping trip at the base. I cried the last time I finished the 3 overflowing carts so I thought he might be better to go this time…never mind the fact that a 5 item list at our grocery store can be a shopping challenge for him. I wrote the list yesterday and it is both sides of an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper.  I’m not sure if I feel worse for him or for me being home with the boot camp kids.

Hope you all have a great weekend whatever your plans might be! I am hoping for health, sleep and some snow!


read more