21 February 2019

At Christmastime, somehow the glitter got out of the craft box, and somehow it got spilled, and somehow Rosebud discovered that it was a lot of fun to skate around our floors all through it!

20 February 2019

Rose Pink has started going to stake dances since she turned 14, and she loves it.  Mr. Brown decided that he was going to go as a chaperone, and so all the parents bring their kids over to our house and he takes a carload to the dance.  Rose Pink is not embarrassed at all by her father attending, and they both have a good time.  At her very first one, she had a partner for every slow dance, because she asked the boys to dance with her - a different one every time.  She's so cool.

Our co-op also sponsors English Country Dances once a month, which is like a dance from Pride and Prejudice, and both she and Mr. Brown have been attending and absolutely love it.  At the last one, more than 150 kids attended, and basically everyone dances every dance because of the way that it's structured.  They have a super time, and Rose Pink has been making friends there.  I'm so sad we have to give this up to move to Texas!  We'll miss it for sure.

19 February 2019

The girls had their annual checkups with their birthdays, and Rose Pink was completely devastated when she discovered that she had not grown at all over the past year.  She's 5' 2.5" and was aiming for six feet.  The nurse commented that it looks like she's reached her full height, and that upset her terribly.  We try and tease her about it, but it's definitely a sore spot for her.  She was really hoping for more height.

Since turning three, it's been obvious that Rosebud is no longer a baby or a toddler.  She's definitely a little girl, and while I'm glad and grateful that she's growing up healthy and happy, I miss the two-year-old.  She's much more independent (I'm so proud) but I miss the toddler who wanted me to hold her all the time, too.  I'm glad for all the times I picked her up even when I didn't want to, because those are over now.

17 February 2019

The kids are playing D&D together!  Rose Pink is primarily the DM, and they hurry through homework to get to the gaming!  It's super fun to see, and Mr. Brown loves it when they dash in to ask him questions or to announce that they made a persuasion check with a 22.

14 February 2019

Happy Valentine's Day!  The kids bought me a giant box of candy and Rose Pink snuck into our room in the middle of the night to leave it at the foot of the bed so I'd see it first thing in the morning.  She's so sweet.  We bought little boxes of chocolates for the kids, and I made string trails from their beds all around the house so they could find them in the morning.  It was a fun little game.  Mr. Brown bought dice for everyone, including me.  Happy happy - a fun celebration.

The kids also had a valentines exchange with their co-op classmates, first one ever, which was fun for them too!

Last night, Rose Pink invited us to play D&D with her and Nut Brown and run around and slay some monsters.  We had a great time - Mr. Brown and I were two relatively wimpy magic users, so we convinced Nut Brown as the brawny barbarian to pull the cart and told him that we would be "pushing" from behind!  We slew a giant snake (well, really Nut Brown and Mr. Brown did) and then I rolled well enough that I successfully butchered it and we brought all the snake steaks home for a cookout.

This morning Mr. Brown texted me to say that the kids were all playing D&D on our bed, and including Rosebud too.  Nut Brown was using his Halloween candy for monsters, and if they beat the monsters they got to eat it.  Super cute.

13 February 2018

Well, it's official - we're moving to Austin, Texas in two weeks!  Right after we arrived in Florida, the Army began standing up a new four star command, and one of my coworkers here has been really interested in this new command.  He kept me updated on all the new developments with it, including the competition to decide where it would be located.  When he read me the list of ten cities remaining, I knew as soon as I heard him say "Austin, Texas" that the headquarters was going to be there because that was where our family needed to move next.  Sure enough, a few months later, Austin was officially chosen, and I started looking for opportunities to apply for jobs there.

When we moved to Florida, Mr. Brown knew that it would only be for a little while.  He anticipated 2-3 years.  As soon as we got here, I fell in love with Florida and didn't want to think about leaving!  I applied in November on a position at this new command, interviewed in mid-December, had a second interview the following week, and was notified that the job offer would be coming right before Christmas.  There were some hangups with paperwork, but they called last Thursday and made the final offer, with a start date of 4 March 2019.  So we're off!

Fortunately this time they're paying for PCS so we don't have to move ourselves.  (Thank goodness.)  The timing is very, very quick - we have less than three weeks to get ready to go.  At the same time, it feels like a tender mercy not to be lingering once we've decided to go.  There are people that we will miss when we leave, but overall we won't miss Florida.  It's been very hard on our family, especially Mr. Brown and the kids.  We are looking forward to Texas and what it might have in store.

10 February 2019

We are really, really loving two-hour church on Sundays.  We had some reservations about it, but the shorter worship time means that we have much more energy for the rest of the day, and it feels like the Sabbath is longer and more restful.  We've been doing the family study on Sunday afternoons right after lunch, and so we're spending an hour and a half in the scriptures together on Sundays and it's so wonderful.  It was a bit rough at first, getting used to it, but as we have learned how to work together to learn it's gotten more and more enjoyable.  We call 'tangerine' on each other to help stay on topic, but we laugh and joke and learn together.  I'm so grateful for this time and so grateful to Mr. Brown for leading us in it.

Then after we finish study time, we still have HOURS before dinner.  It's been so lovely to feel like we have time to do things together and enjoy each other without being so tired.  The Sabbath feels restful and spiritual in a way that it hasn't in a long time.  It is such a blessing to our family.

6 February 2019

Rose Pink is coaching Bobo through making pancakes (?) and says, "pour something into the liquid measuring cup."  Nut Brown tsks at her and says, "It's made of glass... it's not a liquid measuring cup, it's a fluid measuring cup!"

4 February 2019

Last night we celebrated Hedgehog Day (the day after Groundhog Day) by making hedgehogs out of donut holes, frosting and brown sprinkles.  Bobo suggested doing a cakewalk for them, so he and Rose Pink laid one out in tape on the floor, and we strutted and danced around til our numbers came up, at which point we got to make and eat a hedgehog.  (Repeat six times.)  It was a lot of fun.

The frosting Mr. Brown made was actually red because Nut Brown needed some red for an Etch-A-Sketch cake.  He had cleaned off the entire drawing area of the family Etch-A-Sketch and apparently I had agreed to let him make a cake if he did that.  So he did.  The knobs are two tiny cupcakes, and he's planning to use graham cracker crumbs for the screen.