McAllen, Texas

From a 30 thousand foot view, this may look like paradise but actually it's McAllen, TX, approximately 25 minutes from the Mexican border. I took Ry with me for a quick trip to see if it was somewhere we could find ourselves for the next 10 years, but sadly it was not.

Palm trees make me giddy. I love them. When we landed the trees were swaying, the air was moist, the vegetation was lush and the area outside the airport smelled like flowers. I don't know many airports that smell like flowers!

I love this girl! She reads any chance she can get!

This one is for Porter.

A sweet sand sculpture inside the visitors center at South Padre Island. It was about 1.5 hours from McAllen, and is a vacation destination for many Texans. I wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised.

The beach at South Padre is actually pretty nice. We had it almost all to ourselves so we sat on some bench we weren't suppose to be on because it belonged to a hotel and read our books.

I'll take this 88 degree weather in October anytime. :)

It was a fun little trip and I had a great time with my buddy Rylee!

I can die now

Turns out my role is a mother is complete now: my girls can (and love to) craft.

Our Halloween Candy Corn tree (admittedly copied from some website)

The jewelry holder (knobs were replaced with way cuter ones) that I taught for Super Saturday)

Spraying what was/is suppose to be our really pretty Christmas display (to go into my antique milk jug). I didn't anticipate the leaves curling after death and so now it's not quite as full or fresh looking. We're working on it though. :)

Scarecrow Festival

St. Charles really is a great little city with lots happening! When we learned that we were moving to this area everyone (and their dog) told us that Naperville was the place to be and so we spent the majority of our house-hunting time there. It wasn't until the last day of our trip that we came to St. Charles on the advise of a friend from our ward (I guess not everyone!) and have been so grateful that this is where we ended up. Every year we (the city of St. Charles) host the Scarecrow Festival and even those big city folks from Chi-town come out to our neck of the woods.

The girls sitting with the grandpa they never had! :(

Behind these cute kids is the Fox River, which runs through St. Charles. There were even a few fly-fisherman in there today.

Look at Maddie's face!

See previous posts about Maddie and how she cannot seem to keep her shoes on. ANYWHERE!

Emily is way more brave than I am! I only wish (sortof) that I could still brave these rides.

The Remedy Group

Just had to throw this post out there cause I want to remember the ambition and determination of my man. This is his awesome set-up for the SilverSaver/consulting/his book at a food industry trade show which was suppose to be well attended but was in fact NOT (I think he said a total of 3 people showed). The most impressive aspect is that this is Day 2 of the event- even after the bomb dropped he still followed through on his commitment to be there. I can always count on him to do what he says he will, and I love that about him!

Walking w/Emily

In the name of diet and exercise (of course!), Emily and I go walking a few days a week in the morning. It has been so much fun and we are dreading the impending winter so thought we'd better take our exercise downtown. Apparently, we still had lots to talk about because on the way home we totally missed our stop at the Geneva station and ended up it nowhere land until Steve came to rescue us! It was so fun to mix it up a bit. One can never have too many photos at the Bean!

Blue Man Group

We had such a great time in the city going to the Blue Man Group and felt like real grown-ups! :) It was so interesting, fun, interactive, thought-provoking, funny, crazy, and messy with a cherry on top. The whole time I was thinking about what a blast the girls would have and how I must take them soon. We are so blessed with such fun, adventurous friends.

Please disregard this horrible picture of me, it's the only pic I have and if I'm ever to remember anything before yesterday, I need pictures.

First day of school for the 7th and 5th graders!

Since when did I raise a 7th and 5th grader? After a little arm wrestling at the main office, Maddie has a schedule she is happy with and feels pretty confident at Haines. But would you believe they have no air conditioning in the entire building? Steve thinks it's going to take the death of a student from heat exhaustion for them to make a change! Let's hope not. Rylee is now the top dog at Ferson Creek and has a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Goodfellow. Although her bestie, Livvy, is not in her class, she's got some other great friends in there.
This picture cracks me up. Maddie is clearly very irratated with me for taking pictures when she and Makayla should be on their way to the bus stop! And this, my friends, is why I have more of Rylee.
I had to get a picture of Rylee's hair. We crimped it and then she put a little braid on the side. Too cute.

Down-town Chicago

The reason for the hyphen in Down-town is because each and every time we would drive to Beaverton from Vancouver and would drive through Down-town Portland, we would get excited about the city lights, the Willamette River, the bridges, and the fact that we were at least halfway to aunties/manaws/uncles and would loudly exclaim "Down-town Port-land". All 4 of us are lovers of big cities (although the girls are not lovers of walking!) and Chicago takes the cake! Last spring when Steve was jobless, he and I would take the train downtown as soon as the girls got on the bus to get our daily exercise and would take the 1:40 back so we could be home in time to get Rylee of the bus. I have great memories of those times and am grateful to live near such a great city.

This slide rocked! I don't think it's really a slide per se, but we couldn't resist.

Who wants a Mac?

Our computer decided to quit on us (I love my Mac's but shouldn't they last more than 4 years?) and so for our 15th anniversary, Steve and I decided we would buy each other a new set-up. We brought our old computer to the Mac store for a data transfer but they told us we had to take it back with us because they can't recycle it at the store. Anyway...after I signed the paperwork and used the bathroom, I found Steve outside the Mac store with this little display. He didn't want to carry it to the car and being the entrepreneur he is, thought he could make a few bucks too. Man, he keeps me laughing. (The little 3 X 5 card in the corner says $25.00)

What we have been up to lately

Dealing with poorly shipped SilverSavers,
Making SilverSaver displays and driving across Illinois to deliver them,
and fixing broken SilverSavers.
The End