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.