Movin On Out

We are hoping we'll be all loaded up by tomorrow afternoon. We are spending the night in Bastrop tomorrow night and then heading over to Midland to spend a few days with our friends, Jay and Sheryl. Weather permitting we plan to be in Durango by the 1st, and weather permitting we have been promised our stuff "by the 5th". It was earlier promised to us "by the 2nd", but as of today they changed their story. You can imagine how excited we were about that little change. I will keep you updated best I can, not sure what my internet situation will be for awhile, so keep checking back...

Somewhat Roughing It

I'm low on stories to entertain you with today. We're semi roughing it around here since we have 1 TV, no washer/dryer, and no fridge. Our necessities are in a big pile in the kitchen floor. It would be great if we could leave today, but this moving situation almost feels like we're back in Communist China since it seems everybody has a different job, and can ONLY do THEIR job. The guys yesterday packed, but didn't pack any furniture, take things out of drawers, or touch anything in the attic. Today's crew crated our flat screen, unhooked the waterline from the fridge, and unhooked the washer/dryer. No crews work on Sunday, so tomorrow we'll be hanging out until the Monday crew comes and packs up the rest of our stuff and loads everything on the truck. I will say this has been our easiest move so far. When packing for China I had to make 3 piles:
1. things going into storage (things I wouldn't see for 3 years)
2. things going to China (that I wouldn't see for a month)
3. a month's worth of necessities that we could pack and take with us
Moving back to Houston I had 2 piles:
1. things going to Houston (that I wouldn't see for 6 months since our house wasn't finished)
2. things going to Houston that I would need in the next 6 months that I could pack
The Durango move pales in comparison:
1. pull a weeks worth of clothes and the bottles for the babies
So easy it's almost scary!

Sleeping On The Job

I know I'm usually quite militant about getting my blog postings up, but seems like this Christmas I've been really worn out. Humm, I can't imagine why...let's see: there's the entertaining of JR, Kyle, and Reed, getting the house presentable for people to come over, all the behind the scenes Santa operations, keeping my Facebook flair fun and fabulous, and that small detail of being ready for the packers to come TOMORROW! At this very moment I'm supposed to be writing thank you notes (those will be late this year), and packing up things that we need for the next 8-10 days. But instead, I deemed updating my blog was way more important.
All things Christmas were very nice. I know the rest of the country is covered under snow, so please remember we live in Texas when you see that JR is shirtless in every picture. I had a nice shirt picked out for him for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but he refused. What can I say...he's a little McConaughey. Jason and I have been referring to him as "The Shirtless Wonder". Christmas was just another day to the babies. I really thought they'd like ripping wrapping paper, but of course the time their allowed to tear something up, they just sat there like perfect angels. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!
The Shirtless Wonder surveying his Christmas Eve loot.


JR's main concern for his thank you note to Santa was that he told him we were moving so he would know where to bring the presents next year.

Kyle seemed to like his new pacifiers best.

Check out my new super cute scarf. Granny Sherry knitted it for me!

Cute little elves!

Lamp Shade!

The babies are much more vocal than JR ever was. They squeak, squeal and make all kinds of noises constantly. Kyle isn't very articulate; his talking sounds like "oh! ooo! eee!" If you threw in a "woo-hoo!" and a "fabulous" you'd think you were having a conversation with me. On the other hand, Reed sounds like he's trying to say real words. He says things that sound like he's trying to say, "truck", "duck", and today I swear he said, "desk". So everytime Reed says one of his words, I repeat what I think he was trying to say. Jason, of course, thinks I'm ridiculous. So today after Reed said, "desk" I said, "Desk!". Reed said it again, but this time Jason beat me to the punch and hollered out, "Lamp shade! Did you say 'lamp shade'? Did you hear that? He said, 'lamp shade'!" I just had to laugh and admit that maybe Jason's right. Maybe I am stretching Reed's vocabulary a bit much...but I'm not as bad as my parents who still to this day swear up and down JR said, "backpack" when he was a baby!

SHE GOT IT!

We just got the call and JR's Ayi got her visa! Jason and I are doing what we do best. He's on the phone trying to book airplane tickets, and I'm doing a happy dance. Oh yes, there are jazz hands, shimmys, and booty shakes flying around all over the place. As soon as we found out I ran upstairs and woke JR to tell him. Poor thing, I think he thought we were going to the airport right then; he started trying to get up and get ready. Thank you, Visa Officer and Thank you, Lord! Hallelujah and Woo-Hoo!

I REALLY Look Like an Elf!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I Look Like An Elf!

Today was JR's "big" performance in chapel. I don't have a picture of him singing since I was busy videoing it (with a baby in my arms I might add) so I only got some shots of them lining up to go back to class. I think this picture is hilarious. There's obviously some kind of tiff going on directly in front of JR, but nobody seems to notice, and from the looks of the other kids, something mildly entertaining must have been going on just about everywhere else. You'll notice both JR and another boy in the back are wearing shorts. It was 76 degrees today here in sunny Houston, I'm sure JR had that sweater off his body as soon as they got back to the room! He was super excited about his sweater though. After he got dressed this morning he said, "Mommy! I look like an elf!" I have a feeling I might get the same response in a few years when I hand him something to wear, but I doubt it will be said with such delight and excitement. Granny Sherry came with me to watch him and the babies were good. They pretty much did what I would have expected them to do. Reed ate Cheerios out of Granny Sherry's hand, and Kyle stood in my lap looking over my shoulder and flirted with the 3 year old girl behind us. I'm sure her parents were thrilled since she was quite taken with Kyle, and flirted back the whole time. Speaking of the flirting habits of the Ingersoll men, my eldest told me today: "Mommy, Claire smells really good."
Me: Really? What does she smell like?
JR: Flowers.
Me: Did you tell her she smells good?
JR: No. It's bad manners to sniff people, so I didn't tell her.

Put Us On The Prayer List

No, this isn't a picture of Kyle and a random Chinese lady...It's JR and his Ayi! Can you believe JR was so little when we moved to Beijng. AND we'd already been there a couple of months because I think this picture was taken in May 2004. JR's Ayi from China is going for her US visa interview December 22! She got to come see us for a month last summer (07), and we've been hoping to get her back ever since. Her boss said she could have a month off around Chinese New Year to come see us. So if she can get her visa, she's good to go! You'd think getting a visa would be an easy process. People get confused and say, "Why won't China let her come?" It has nothing to do with China. China's got 1.3 billion other Chinese to worry about; it's the US that's the problem. The first time she tried she got denied. The second time she tried is when she came. The problem is that if she gets denied this time, she'll probably never get to come back because once you've been denied twice you really have no shot. I understand the whole visa process, but I get aggravated that terrorists can prance right over and fly planes into buildings, while fabulously wonderful Chinese ladies can't come visit families who loved them for 3 years. When we lived in Beijing and things seemed impossible we'd say, "Remember, God is bigger than the Chinese Government." This time I just have to tweak it a bit...He's also bigger than the American Government too. Prayers lists please!

Joseph's Entourage

My most famous friend, Joseph, is in Houston this week and spent the day with me yesterday. (I know a lot of you are thinking, "What?! I thought I was Jan's most famous friend?!" Well, today we are defining "famous" as somebody who sings, acts, or dances for a living....and although many of us think we are quite fabulous at those things, we don't actually earn a living doing them.) I'm sure the opera community is appalled at my lack of hospitality towards Joseph. I'm sure opera stars are used to the 5 star treatment, but in the Ingersoll household opera stars are told, "I'm so glad you're here...now come help me run all my errands!" I'd like to think that if I ever spent the day with Mz. Britney Spears, I'd feel comfortable enough to treat her the same way...although since she is Britney, I might offer her some cheese grits.

We started off the day at HEB where I forgot to take a picture, but we soon found ourselves at Marshall's so I could return something. As you can see, I found the boys shopping in "Petites" and "Intimate Apparel". Being that Joseph is one of my former students, I don't want to know anything about his "intimate apparel", but I do know that at 6'4" he's got no business in the "petites"!

We made our way to the mall where Joseph's first chore was to be my smell tester for all things Bath and Body Works.









JR is singing at chapel on Thursday and I was instructed to send him in Christmas clothes. Joseph picked out this cute green sweater for JR at the Children's Place since it has Christmas colors without being a "Christmas sweater" and since JR looks better in green than red. JR's version of "Christmas wear" would be Spiderman wearing a Santa hat, so I think we made the better choice.

We also headed over to Hobby Lobby. This is about the time the cold front blew through and I was freezing! I was too cold to get an appropriate picture, so here we are with some frame matting we bought.

After all our hard work shopping we finally got to have some lunch at Berryhill's Tamales. Yummm! When we got home Joseph even wrapped some of my Christmas presents, which is the BEST Christmas present he could have ever given me. I'm the worst present wrapper on the face of the planet, but I think I'll save that for another blog.

Vacation Wear

I found these cute little outfits for the boys and bought them specifically for their first plane ride. I was envisioning how good they would be, and how cute everybody would say they were in their "plane clothes". Well, we all know how that turned out. Of course I'm never one to waste a good costume or themed outfit, so here are the boys in their "first airplane ride clothes". I really do think we'd have gotten some "ooohs" and "ahhhs" if they'd only behaved themselves.

Baby Talk: Sunday Driver

Kyle: Reed! Look over there, drive that way.
Reed: Oh yeah, I'm on it, bro!






K: Hey girls, How's it going?
R: Check us out, pretty sweet wheels, huh?
K: Y'all wanna ride?
R: Dude, Mom won't like us bring girls home yet.
K: Yeah, You're probably right, she treats us like such babies.
R: Ummm, we gotta get going, maybe we'll catch you later.
K: Give us your digits and I'll text ya sometime.
R: Make sure and "friend me" on facebook!

R: Dude, turn around and sit down...try and look cool.
K: I know, man, I was just giving them one more glimpse of my winning smile!

ORANGE I a Happy Girl!

JR had one of his school friends over to play yesterday. (I know that's called a "play date" but for some reason that term rubs me the wrong way...it's just kids playing with each other, do we have to give it such a formal and fancy name?) It was a beautiful day yesterday, and they spent over an hour picking oranges (the ones they could reach) off our orange tree, loading them in the back of JR's 4-wheeler, driving them to the backyard, and then unloading them into our gazebo. So, why is this exciting news? Look in JR's hand. Do you see it? It's an ORANGE! Yesterday was the first day in JR's entire life that he's touched a piece of fruit. I was in shock. I think we're making real progress here. He even told me, "Mommy! Look, I'm touching these oranges." He then quickly followed up with, "But I'm still not going to eat them." Fine by me, I'm just happy he's touching them...one step forward!

Cheap Gas Parade...Today!

One of my dearest friends, Marcia, made a fabulous post on her blog wondering when we were going to have a cheap gas parade. Gas was $1.44 here in Houston today, I think that's worth parading about! My only requirement for having a cheap gas parade was that I wanted to wear costumes. Well, Marcia, my dear, I broke out our best parade costumes (tiaras, of course) AND I gave us the best car in the parade. It's amazing how many celebrities who are usually so critical of President Bush would join in our cheap gas parade. That was so thoughtful of them. And I knew Oprah had put a few pounds back on, and Trump had a big head...But WOW, I had no idea it was this bad! Strike up the band...

All Winter in a Day

Back in my teaching days I used to teach a short story called, "All Summer in a Day" written by Ray Bradbury. In the story the kids live on Venus and they only have 1 hour of sunshine every 7 years. Of course during that hour the kids are let out of school to run around and experience "summer". It started "snowing" here this afternoon while JR was a taekwondo, and I was sad he was missing it (I know, I just need to wait a month and he'll get to see it snow plenty of times). But being a native Houstonian, it's a HUGE deal to see snow falling from the Texas sky. When I picked JR from taekwondo (it was already done snowing)

he said, "Mommy! It snowed!"

Me: Did you see it?!
JR: Yes! Master Lee let us run outside and see it!

That was when I was reminded of "All Summer in a Day". Master Lee let a class full of kids run outside and see it snow, and I was thrilled he let them do that. Here in Houston we've got "All Winter in a Day". It was hot and humid yesterday, "snow" today, and it's supposed to be sunny and 58 tomorrow. And because it was too warm for the snow to stick on the ground, I took a picture of the snow on my sleeve for proof!

It's Never Ending

As you can see, stocking number 2 still isn't finished. If you're keeping track, I've been sewing Christmas stockings for 56 days, 29 of which have been on this stocking. Now Jason will be quick to tell you I haven't actually worked on this stocking everyday, but he'd also be quick to point out that he's had to look at stockings and the craft supplies that go with them on our coffee table and couch for 56 days...so he's ready to get this over with too. There's still so much more left to do, and I just don't see it getting done by Christmas. I could be working on it right now, but complaining about it on my blog is just so much more fun!

Snowbaby

My camera died on me while we were in Colorado. (I can't see what I'm taking a picture of when taking a picture.) So needless to say, I don't have any "good" pictures to share. But here are the ones from when JR made us pull over on the side of the road so he could play in the fresh snow. I'm sure the snow will eventually get "old", but I'm not sure these views of the mountains ever will.

Candy Land

I bought JR a Christmas gingerbread house to decorate way back before Halloween. I found it at Costco, and as I have learned, if you don't buy it when you see it, it'll be gone the next time. I knew JR would beg nonstop to put it together, so I told him he wasn't allowed to ask about it until after Thanksgiving. So today was house building day. I was certain that JR would want me to help him with his gingerbread house. I mean, come on, I should have been a total shoe-in, right? There's the Christmas stockings he's been watching me make, he's seen my handywork in hat decorating, and he even watched me embellish Kyle's lion Halloween costume (which Jason thought made it look "too girly"). But even with my extensive craft resume, he still wanted Jason to help him. He made up some excuse about how "Daddy is better at following directions than Mommy" and "Daddy can build anything by reading the directions". Whatever. He really picked Jason because he thinks his daddy's more fun. I know what you're thinking...Jason more fun than you, Jan? No way! Well, I guess to a 5 year old, Jason would be the fun one. JR hasn't been out on the town to witness my Oops! I Did It Again Britney routine, he doesn't know how much fun a themed dinner party with costumes can be, and he certainly doesn't know how close I was to the front row at the Justin Timberlake concert (Thanks again, Allison). No, it's probably best he think that Daddy is the fun one. And they can make all the gingerbread houses they want...I'll just take the pictures.

Flight Good News/Bad News

Good news: The flight home wasn't full, Jason and I each had an aisle seat with the middle seat open.
Bad news: Although they got the window seat, random people were still stuck sitting on the same row with us.

Good news: The flight home was a million times better than the flight there.
Bad news: These poor children will have to hear how JR has been a "perfect flier since he was a baby" their entire lives.

Good news: Both babies slept a little bit after take-off.
Bad news: They probably only slept 15 minutes, as I wasn't even able to scan the entire Sky Mall and Jason wasn't even able to get in a quick snooze.

Good news: The babies were entertained with drinking apple juice and eating Cheerios.
Bad news: I poured some Cheerios in a cup thinking Kyle could reach in and get a few at a time. He got overly excited at the site of the Cheerios and ripped the cup out of my hand, sending Cheerios flying through the air and covering the aisle. After a few people walked by going to the bathroom, smushed Cheerios lined the aisle.

Good news: I was able to somewhat entertain both babies for most of our descent.
Bad news: Everybody surrounding us had to endure my renditions of: Wheels on the Bus, BINGO, and Old McDonald had a Farm.

JR Hearts Snow

My child that's only interested in being outside if it somehow involves water or hunting might actually play outside here in Durango. JR, known for his famous quote, "I had to come inside to get some fresh air", is really more of an inside guy. That's why Jason and I were shocked that he played OUTSIDE the entire time we were house hunting. He loved the snow; he couldn't get enough of it. He even made us pull the car over so he could run play in a new fresh patch. The house we picked has a nice hill right in our backyard, which the realtor (and across the street neighbor) told us was perfect for sledding. Guess we'll have to buy a sled. And something else called a "snow blower". When told for the need of a snow blower Jason said, "I have a leaf blower, will that work?" Laughter followed all around, so I guess that's a "no". We'll be heading back to Houston tomorrow, and we're already gearing up for the big flight...As Kate from J&K+8 would say, "I'm exhausted just thinking about it".

JR Finds His Chinese

We've been in Durango all of 2 days and JR has already found his Chinese. We ate at the Shanghai Pearl for dinner tonight and not only do all the waiters know JR (and Jason) by name, but JR entertained them with a 15 minute Taekwondo show. Leave it to the Ingersolls to have a Chinese restaurant where they know us by name before we've even moved!

More Reynolds Than Ingersoll

So the babies first flight was much closer to my first airplane experience than JR's. Since Jason and I raised JR, I think we just assumed all Ingersoll children would be excellent fliers. Both of us secretly thought Reed would be the fussier of the two, so Jason told me before hand that he would take Kyle and I could have Reed. But before we boarded, Kyle fell asleep while I was holding him, so I actually wound up with Kyle and Jason had Reed. I've said before that Kyle acts a lot like me, well, yesterday he proved it...for the whole plane. The plane was full, and I was in a middle seat. They won't let Jason and me sit together since they only have 4 oxygen masks per row, so that leaves 2 complete strangers sitting on either side of me. Things were fine for the first two seconds, but seems Kyle hates to fly as much as I do. He screamed (and when I say "scream" I mean the annoying, crying, squeal that only children confined on airplanes can make) from the time we sat down until the plane took off into the air (the long wait on the runway was super fun). Kyle was in full on fit mode. If I held him so he was facing me, he'd launch himself backward into a gymnast's back bend pose. If I held him with his back to me, he'd slam his head into my collar bone as hard as he could...and he could really get the force going behind that little maneuver since he could brace his feet on the seat-back in front of us. When the plane finally took off I looked over at Jason and saw that Reed was asleep on his chest; Jason also had his eyes closed and was in "Ingersoll plane sleeping position". I really thought Reed had inherited the Ingersoll plane traveling genes, but he only slept about 15 minutes.
I'm not sure who the most miserable person on the flight was, but I have a list of nominees:
A. Me-screaming baby that I can't control
B. Man Sitting Next To Me- Something about him must have reminded Kyle of Jason because he kept trying to crawl in his lap. The poor guy finally struck up a conversation with me, I guess he figured if Kyle was going to keep him awake the whole flight, the least I could do was entertain him.
C. Unmarried Woman That Rolled Her Eyes When She Saw She Had To Sit Next To Me- She had the window seat and she scrunched herself into that window as far as she could get. I believe given a choice, she would have picked to ride outside on the wing rather than sit next to me.
D. The University of New Mexico Lobo's Basketball Team- 7 ft. tall basketball players stuffed into the seats in coach -'nuff said.
About 30 minutes into the flight I got Kyle calmed down enough to start shoving Cheerios down his throat, which seemed to pacify him for awhile. I was sure that eventually he would take a nap, but seems that Kyle is exactly like me and feels the need to stay awake just in case the pilot needs help flying or we need to fight terrorists. Had I been traveling without the babies, I think I might have relaxed a bit on my terrorist watch. There was only one guy I thought was a little shady (yes, I check out everybody on the plane) but I figured with the basketball team on board they could certainly fight off terrorists with all their athletic prowless.
About 1 1/2 hours into the flight I took Kyle to Granny Sherry to watch while I went to the bathroom. While I was up I checked on my mom and JR who were enthralled in one of their many games of War. (Kelly, give JR 16 years and he's totally ready to join you at the War table in Vegas.) My mom and JR looked like they were having the time of their lives and the lady sitting next to them was peacefully asleep.
Back in my seat, Kyle continued to struggle and scream. Reed would have an outburst every now and again, but was a dream compared to Kyle. As the pilot came on to tell us we had begun our initial decent, Kyle fell asleep. I know how it is, that's one of my favorite parts of the flight too...knowing that it's almost over.
I learned a few lessons from yesterday's flight:
1. JR is an excellent traveler. (Have I mentioned that enough?)
2. I can't travel with the babies by myself.
3. When thinking the drive to Durango is long, think back to yesterday's plane trip
4. I owe everybody aboard yesterday's Continental flight 1020 from Houston to Albuquerque a huge apology.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

House Hunters

We're leaving this morning for Durango. We're flying into Albuquerque and then driving from there. Our goal is to find a house and get JR all set up for school. The babies will be taking their first airplane ride; let's just hope it goes as great as JR's did. Let's also hope it goes nothing like my first trip in an airplane. For those of you who don't know me, I used to be petrified of flying...now I'm only mildly terrified. God always makes you depend on Him one way or another doesn't he?..."Oh Jan, you hate to fly...Hummm, how 'bout I move you to China and give you a husband that loves to travel!" My first flight story is actually pretty funny, but to make a long story short, here's the rundown: 21 years old, lots of tears, a medium sized panic attack, and an offer from the pilot to buy me a drink. Good times.