Welcome to Texas

Well, we have arrived. The trip was long but uneventful. Libby watched "Max & Ruby" until her eyeballs fell out. John says Jaina entertained herself by making wobbly noises in the U-Haul. John only had one almost-disaster - U-Haul vs. Pavement - trying to drive up an incline at a gas station. Thankfully, the U-Haul won, leaving a 3-ft gash in the street. Sorry, City of Ridgeland.

I had many Close Encounters of the Filth Kind in various gas station bathrooms. But when you're driving cross-country while 4 months pregnant, you can't afford to be picky. Worst bathroom: the Citgo on King's St in Shreveport, LA. I would not have been surprised to see a dead rat in the corner. I needed a shower with Lysol after using that bathroom. Best bathroom I have EVER been in: the Shell Travel Lodge in Tyler, TX. Holy Cow, that place was nice. It was DECORATED even! And it smelled like BBQ! Now, I know you don't neccessarily want to be sniffing BBQ while doing your business, but after all the nasty places I had been in up to that point (Tyler was our last stop before arriving in Allen), I was loving the BBQ.

The house is great, the yard is super, and the park across the street is wonderful. Except every time we open the front door, Libby tries to make a break for it, yelling "Playground!". We had a pretty bad ant problem when we moved in, but we seem to be winning, thanks to a healthy dose if Ortho Home Defense MAX! There are a few minor repairs needed, which our landlord should take care of fairly quickly, and some cosmetic issues we'd like to tackle, like original 1986 bathroom fixtures. The peeling "brass" faucet has got ta go.

So yesterday and last night we had three seperate storm systems come through. I had forgotten just how intense Texas' spring storms are. The afternoon storm resulted in some tornadoes in a nearby town, so our tornado sirens went off for a while. Thankfully, the girls were at the tail-end of their naps when we had to wake them up to sit in our closet. John went out to the garage to listen to the car radio to find out what was going on. I think we'll be getting a weather radio this week so we don't have to seperate like that again. Somehow the girls slept through the ear-splitting, window-shaking thunder of all three storms. Amazing. We have more coming in on Monday.

Boxes are everywhere, but I made some good progress yesterday. I have one week to get it all done before John leaves for Nashville. On Mother's Day of all days. Hope the kids co-operate!