I like October in Texas. The weather eventually starts to cool off and it's a comfortable temperature outside. The cold front that came through yesterday was a very wet one though. About the time to leave for ballet lessons, it was raining pretty hard- but I expected it to pass through fairly quickly. Instead it came down even harder; the umbrella hardly seemed to be doing much when we got out of the truck. It would start to taper off and then the next storm cell would pass over. The raingutters that Tartan installed over the back deck and next to our bedroom certainly got a trial...by flood! They need a little more work, but they kept most of the rain going down the spout rather than splashing onto the deck or outside the windows. Today was a beautiful day; the rain all gone, but the temperatures still cooler.
Saturday was the Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta, though fortunately without any rain. Aidan, Kyrie and Abigail decorated pinewood boats and Tartan attached the sails they had to blow on to race them in the raingutters. None of them placed, but they all were really close in their races and they were good sports. After hot dogs, crisps, and pink lemonade we went home and had a visit from one of my sisters and her husband. All in all it was a splendid day.
In case you're wondering (and you might)- no, we still do not have a working dishwasher. I still have no idea when it'll be fixed. Well- rejoice in the Lord always!- even without dishwasher. :)
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
I wish my dishwasher was working
Our dishwasher gave up the ghost on 21 September. Of course, the part that needs to be replaced takes about 2 weeks to come in- so I should hearing something by the end of this week, but more likely early next week. I've had the kids do some of the wash up, but mostly it's me and mostly it piles up through the day until I can get to it in the evening. I guess there are worse things, but it's certainly not helping any.
I do praise God that though it looked like I might be coming down with the stomach bug Tartan had last week- it was just an annoyance yesterday (our really busy out-and-about day) and we were able to get everything done. Except dinner- I was too wiped out by then, so Tartan brought home fast food. Today I appear to be fine.
Time for lunch!
Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers
I do praise God that though it looked like I might be coming down with the stomach bug Tartan had last week- it was just an annoyance yesterday (our really busy out-and-about day) and we were able to get everything done. Except dinner- I was too wiped out by then, so Tartan brought home fast food. Today I appear to be fine.
Time for lunch!
Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Pardon my contest entry...
I entered to win the writing instruction program MY Access! Home and the SAT Prep Pack on the HSB Company Porch!
It's October!
How did that happen? At the end of the month, Abigail will be six! She is planning on having a Spongebob themed party. I'm going to have to start thinking about when that's going to happen.
It has somehow come to pass that nearly all our extracurricular activities are on Monday and Tuesdays. On Monday, Kyrie has band and will be having ballet as well, Abigail has ballet, and Alex has boy scouts in the evening. It's not very difficult; there's a place for the rest of us to work on school work during band and Kyrie and Abigail will be doing ballet at roughly the same time. Tartan takes Alex to scouts and even if occasionally I'll have to do that, it's very close to the house.
Tuesday is the interesting day. After lunch, we pack up and head to the YMCA for PE class. The first half hour is fellowship time and they can run\walk laps to earn little, plastic foot-shaped charms and get ready for the presidential fitness exam in the spring. After the hour of PE (not including the fellowship time), we head toward home, dropping Kyrie off on the way for her 2nd hour of ballet. At home, the boys have enough time to freshen up and change clothes before I drop them off for piano lessons a little early so I have time to get back and pick up Kyrie. Yesterday I dropped the boys off a little earlier than I expected and I got back to the ballet school earlier, but that was good because Abigail and Kayleigh got 15 minutes to stretch their legs in the waiting area after being in the car since 2:40. The final bit of the day was to pick up the boys at 5.
We were well organized yesterday so it went pretty smoothly. Even Alex, who is the one who gets stressed with all this going hither and thither, didn't feel like it was a constant rush and he didn't have enough time. I think I'm going to make a list to post by the door of everything we need to remember to have with us in the hopes that that will help things to continue to go smoothly on Tuesdays. Yes, you can pray for us. :)
Trusting in the Lord (and constantly reminding myself of this),
Naomi for the Colliers
It has somehow come to pass that nearly all our extracurricular activities are on Monday and Tuesdays. On Monday, Kyrie has band and will be having ballet as well, Abigail has ballet, and Alex has boy scouts in the evening. It's not very difficult; there's a place for the rest of us to work on school work during band and Kyrie and Abigail will be doing ballet at roughly the same time. Tartan takes Alex to scouts and even if occasionally I'll have to do that, it's very close to the house.
Tuesday is the interesting day. After lunch, we pack up and head to the YMCA for PE class. The first half hour is fellowship time and they can run\walk laps to earn little, plastic foot-shaped charms and get ready for the presidential fitness exam in the spring. After the hour of PE (not including the fellowship time), we head toward home, dropping Kyrie off on the way for her 2nd hour of ballet. At home, the boys have enough time to freshen up and change clothes before I drop them off for piano lessons a little early so I have time to get back and pick up Kyrie. Yesterday I dropped the boys off a little earlier than I expected and I got back to the ballet school earlier, but that was good because Abigail and Kayleigh got 15 minutes to stretch their legs in the waiting area after being in the car since 2:40. The final bit of the day was to pick up the boys at 5.
We were well organized yesterday so it went pretty smoothly. Even Alex, who is the one who gets stressed with all this going hither and thither, didn't feel like it was a constant rush and he didn't have enough time. I think I'm going to make a list to post by the door of everything we need to remember to have with us in the hopes that that will help things to continue to go smoothly on Tuesdays. Yes, you can pray for us. :)
Trusting in the Lord (and constantly reminding myself of this),
Naomi for the Colliers
Monday, 24 September 2007
Pets
I've forgotten to mention we have critters. Alex has a toad named Lucky. He needed to keep an observation log of a reptile or amphibian for a merit badge he started at camp, and fortunately there are A LOT of frogs and toads around here. Little factoid for you: a toad is a frog, but a frog is not necessarily a toad. He's named Lucky because I mentioned he was the lucky one of all the choices Alex had outside and he decided he liked that for a name. Alex decided, not Lucky. Since Alex figured out how to feed him, he's seemed pretty content in his tank.
We also have a cat. I obviously had not mentioned this to anyone in my family because they were all asking "whose cat is that?" Fluffy is a black and white kitten who lives in the garage at night, or when we're away from home, and out in the garden during the day. She was found as a very young kitten by our neighbor, but they couldn't keep her because of allergies. We decided to take her so they wouldn't have to take her to animal control.
At some point, Kyrie would like to have fish. I'm sure at some point we'll figure out how that works. Maybe I'll remember to include that in the blog when it happens.
Sorry I don't have any pictures.
Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers
We also have a cat. I obviously had not mentioned this to anyone in my family because they were all asking "whose cat is that?" Fluffy is a black and white kitten who lives in the garage at night, or when we're away from home, and out in the garden during the day. She was found as a very young kitten by our neighbor, but they couldn't keep her because of allergies. We decided to take her so they wouldn't have to take her to animal control.
At some point, Kyrie would like to have fish. I'm sure at some point we'll figure out how that works. Maybe I'll remember to include that in the blog when it happens.
Sorry I don't have any pictures.
Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Birthday month
I'm a year older now and on Saturday, Aidan turns 8. One of my sisters has a birthday this month and so does my nephew. September is the big birthday month.
For my day, Tartan took me out to dinner at an Indian (India) restaurant. We also picked up a temporary cell phone to see whether it was signal or phone that was so rotten. It turns out that it was the phone. So as soon as I get the opportunity my birthday gift will be a new mobile phone.
Last weekend we took the camper out again for the boy scout family campout. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. It was a nice little break, though I wish I had socialised a little more, but that's never been my strong suit. Abigail, on the other hand, knows everyone in the troop now, I think.
This coming weekend, my extended family is congregating at our house. Most have only seen pictures of the outside, so we get to show off. The weather's supposed to be good and we're all looking forward to it. I hope we have it fairly clean before Saturday.
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers
For my day, Tartan took me out to dinner at an Indian (India) restaurant. We also picked up a temporary cell phone to see whether it was signal or phone that was so rotten. It turns out that it was the phone. So as soon as I get the opportunity my birthday gift will be a new mobile phone.
Last weekend we took the camper out again for the boy scout family campout. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. It was a nice little break, though I wish I had socialised a little more, but that's never been my strong suit. Abigail, on the other hand, knows everyone in the troop now, I think.
This coming weekend, my extended family is congregating at our house. Most have only seen pictures of the outside, so we get to show off. The weather's supposed to be good and we're all looking forward to it. I hope we have it fairly clean before Saturday.
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers
Friday, 14 September 2007
San Antonio
I haven't downloaded the photos yet, but we had a great time in San Antonio. We had a pretty full day on Friday, despite being up really late Thursday night trying to deal with disgusting insects in our camper. We visited the Missions Visitor Center and Mission San Jose- one of several (re-built) Spanish missions in San Antonio. The chapel there is still used as a Catholic church today. We plan on making more trips to San Antonio to visit the other missions and have the kids complete their Junior Ranger booklets. After that we went to the Botanical Gardens where they had a new exhibit based on Bug's favorite: Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego. The butterfly bushes indeed had butterflies all around them and I am wondering if I'll ever find the time and a place in our garden for a couple. We went back to the camper where I at least took a siesta. We bought dinner at the KOA campground we were staying at so we could hurry into the rec room we had reserved to finally watch part 2 of the two-part Doctor Who that we saw part 1 of just before we moved back to the States. To end the day, we went and splashed around in the campground swimming pool for a little while before heading off to bed.
Saturday we spent the whole day at Fiesta Texas Six Flags- an amusement park. Tartan and Kyrie rode a couple of the rollercoasters and the rest of us opted for the more mild rides. I did go on the Wile E. Coyote\Roadrunner coaster with Kyrie, but that's about as exciting as I can take. That and the log ride. The river raft ride was interesting. Aidan and I got fairly wet, but Kyrie and Abigail got utterly soaked. Alex was barely touched- much to his satisfaction. They went with Tartan: he and Aidan got pretty wet, the girls were soaked, and Alex escaped again. I don't know how he managed. Even Kayleigh was able to enjoy a couple of rides. On the Scooby Doo Haunted House ride you get a laser gun to shoot at targets during the ride. I think she really enjoyed pressing the trigger to hear the funny sound it made. We enjoyed a couple of the musical performances that they have several times during the day. The girls went up to say a few words in the mike at the country music show, but you couldn't really hear them. I suspect they've had some kids scream into the mike so they turn it way down. The one-hit wonders show and the other "oldies" medley show were fun and all three girls went to dance with the performers and Abi got microphone-time again which really pleased her. Kayleigh was really tired by then and just stood there, but she gave the gal a big hug at the end so that was cute. I had forgotten to charge the camera battery so I think it had died before then. We do have pictures with some of the characters at the park, like Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, and Wonder Woman. Hopefully I'll eventually post a few. We bought a few souvenirs just as the park closed at 8pm and then started the drive back home. Our church had their first Sunday at Kaufman elementary school and we wanted to be there for it. It went very well and without a hitch. We look forward to seeing God make use of all that room we have now.
This weekend we're going on the boy scout family campout with Alex's new troop. The weather's supposed to be good. We didn't feel any of the effects of the sudden hurricane (Humberto) that developed in the gulf. It was a compact storm, so it didn't reach as far inland as we are, but people in Beaumont and Port Arthur are without power.
Time to get the kids up for our school day followed by hurried shopping and packing for the weekend!
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers
Saturday we spent the whole day at Fiesta Texas Six Flags- an amusement park. Tartan and Kyrie rode a couple of the rollercoasters and the rest of us opted for the more mild rides. I did go on the Wile E. Coyote\Roadrunner coaster with Kyrie, but that's about as exciting as I can take. That and the log ride. The river raft ride was interesting. Aidan and I got fairly wet, but Kyrie and Abigail got utterly soaked. Alex was barely touched- much to his satisfaction. They went with Tartan: he and Aidan got pretty wet, the girls were soaked, and Alex escaped again. I don't know how he managed. Even Kayleigh was able to enjoy a couple of rides. On the Scooby Doo Haunted House ride you get a laser gun to shoot at targets during the ride. I think she really enjoyed pressing the trigger to hear the funny sound it made. We enjoyed a couple of the musical performances that they have several times during the day. The girls went up to say a few words in the mike at the country music show, but you couldn't really hear them. I suspect they've had some kids scream into the mike so they turn it way down. The one-hit wonders show and the other "oldies" medley show were fun and all three girls went to dance with the performers and Abi got microphone-time again which really pleased her. Kayleigh was really tired by then and just stood there, but she gave the gal a big hug at the end so that was cute. I had forgotten to charge the camera battery so I think it had died before then. We do have pictures with some of the characters at the park, like Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, and Wonder Woman. Hopefully I'll eventually post a few. We bought a few souvenirs just as the park closed at 8pm and then started the drive back home. Our church had their first Sunday at Kaufman elementary school and we wanted to be there for it. It went very well and without a hitch. We look forward to seeing God make use of all that room we have now.
This weekend we're going on the boy scout family campout with Alex's new troop. The weather's supposed to be good. We didn't feel any of the effects of the sudden hurricane (Humberto) that developed in the gulf. It was a compact storm, so it didn't reach as far inland as we are, but people in Beaumont and Port Arthur are without power.
Time to get the kids up for our school day followed by hurried shopping and packing for the weekend!
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)