29 March 2019

Well, it's been an eventful month. We moved this month from Orlando to Austin.  The final job offer came through on Feb 8, and we left Orlando on Feb 26.  Travelled along I-10 to Houston and then up to Austin.  We stayed in hotels along the way, and the kids always wanted to swim but it was always too late or too early or too cold.  At the last hotel, they were really bummed when I told them that it was too cold, so they went ahead to swim anyway.  I think it was fifty degrees outside.  Nut Brown was really offended when I told them I thought they only had a few minutes, but once they jumped in the pool, there was a lot of shrieking and they didn't need more than a minute or two before they were all done swimming.  It was pretty funny.  Fortunately nobody caught any colds or anything.

We arrived in Austin in our two cars and moved into a tiny stone cottage as temporary quarters while we started house hunting:

Here's my favorite part about it:

a screened back porch with a table.  We've been eating dinner outside every night.

The cottage itself is about 900 sq ft.  Due to a misunderstanding, there are only two bedrooms and one bathroom, so the girls are on the floor on air mattresses.  It's really not that bad - we feel that we are benefitting from being in close proximity to each other so consistently.  I was worried that the kids would be bored, that we hadn't brought enough toys, but the backyard is completely rocks, no grass (you can kind of see it in this photo:

and that has provided plenty of amusement for the kids.  They have also been making and playing their own board games, with varying amounts of success.  Nut Brown's games are the ones that more consistently engage Mr. Brown and I.

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.

27 January 2019

Putting Rosebud in bed just now and she said, "I'm the princess, and you're the king, so you have to use a DIFFERENT voice," and I was forced to sing good night songs in the bass register and wish her good night in my most kingly tones.

25 January 2019

My parents came to visit over New Year's, and my sister and her family came down too.  They were on their way to the Everglades and stopped over for a day or two.  We had a New Year's game night party at the church... it started as a New Year's Day sandwich party at our house, which is an annual tradition, and then kind of grew and morphed and turned into a fun evening that the whole ward was invited to.

My sister's mother in law gave them a karaoke machine for Christmas, and we had entirely too much fun with it!

Rose Pink and Nut Brown

Nut Brown and friend - they sang Bohemian Rhapsody, and They Might Giants songs, and lots of other stuff together.

Mr. Brown and friend, singing It's The End Of the World As We Know It

Nut Brown and his cousin

me and Rose Pink, singing Havana Oh Na Na.  I was so thrilled when she decided she would sing with me... hanging out with her friends here put the brakes on her desire to sing in front of people.  She's such a good singer too.

me and my dad singing an oldie that he picked.  He had a bad cold, so he chose one where he could sing a super fun bass line called "Mr. Bass Man".  I didn't actually know it, so I just kind of made it up as we went along.

me and my sister falling over laughing while singing Cheap Thrills.  We had such a blast!

The karaoke madness continued into the next day, right up until my sister left and had to take the karaoke machine with her.  Rosebud sang 'Over The Rainbow' with me, word for word... it's one of her favorite lullabies at bedtime.  She also sang with the older kids on Shotgun by George Ezra.  Even then, Nut Brown asked if we could bring up karaoke videos on youtube, and he would just sing along with them without a microphone.  So much super fun!

20 January 2019

Girls in pink shirts and jeans

Rose Pink has been so happy since her birthday, and is such a pleasure to be around.  The other night we were eating dinner off paper plates because we were tired of doing dishes, and when I got out the ice cream for dessert, I told the kids to go and get themselves bowls for ice cream.  Rose Pink presented a spoon and had me put her six scoops (we have a small scooper) on the spoon one at a time, and she ate each one while waiting for me to scoop the next.  She is so funny.

The other night we were laying on our bed talking with Rose Pink and Nut Brown, and she said something really clever and funny.  Mr. Brown and I laughed and I said, "Rose Pink, you are so funny!" and she smiled at me and then sighed and said, "None of my friends think I'm funny.  They never get my jokes."  Well, I think she needs new friends.  I wish she had more people who really appreciated her.

18 January 2019

For the girls' birthdays we went to Disney World.  Some friends of our from the ward are ardent Disney fans, and they were excited to be our guides, so we went down together last Saturday.  After the three hour parking snafu, we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom, and finished up with the fireworks at 9 pm.  We got Fast Passes for some rides (Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain) and stood in line for others.  We watched the parade, which was fun, and the laser show at 8:30 and the fireworks at 9 pm.  Rosebud fell asleep during the fireworks.  We packed a lot of snacks/food, which was good, because we ended up not eating dinner. 

The kids had a wonderful time and have been asking to go back ever since.  Mr. Brown and I had somewhat more mixed feelings about it.  It was exhausting, and there were so many people, and we stood in line for what felt like mediocre experiences (including the jungle boat ride with the automated animal carvings - was this really worth an hour wait?), and then riding on Space Mountain made Mr. Brown really, really sick.  The next day was Sunday and we were completely exhausted all day, and the kids were crabby because they were so tired.  By the time we left, Mr. Brown and I were feeling like we never wanted to see Disney again.

But the kids had a wonderful time.  They didn't mind waiting in line, and they loved the roller coasters (fortunately our friends like them too and took our kids on them so we didn't have to), and we really, really enjoyed the laser show at the end.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends, too.  The passes we bought were for four days, so we'll be headed back three more times.  Maybe we'll like Epcot better!

17 January 2019

Last summer we started a road trip to a family reunion.  The kids each had a notebook as part of staying busy in the car, and when we got home I discovered that Bobo had chronicled our journey for part of the way in his book.

passing palm trees... we must still be in Florida...

a farmhouse

crossing a bridge over a river

more trees

more trees... we're definitely in South Carolina now

river plus trees in the median

fewer trees and the other side of the highway

passing a pond with trees in the median

the last page... with a love note from his sister

16 January 2019

Mr. Brown and the big kids leave for Mutual and I say to the littles, "What should we listen to?" and name some of my favorite kid bands.  (I love Raffi.)  Bobo says, "No way, Mom!" and Rosebud says, "no no no Cheap Thrills!"  So they've picked the music this evening and we listened to:

-Seven Nation Army (White Stripes)
-Cheap Thrills (Sia)
-Zombie (Cranberries) (they know all the words to this, even Rosebud)
-Havana Oh Na Na (Camila Cabello)
-Natural (Imagine Dragons)
-Believer (Imagine Dragons)
-Exes and Ohs (Elle King)

And they have sung along to all of them.

11 January 2019

Dragon, by Nut Brown

8 January 2019

A picture of Yggdrasil painted by Nut Brown.

Bobo's reading has really taken off in the last couple of months.  He started reading picture books to himself, and then he started reading everything else to himself as well.  He's learning about Egypt for a geography project, since his first name is Egyptian, and he read a good chunk of a book of Egyptian myths to himself.  He read himself a chapter book, and has been completely immersed in the Geronimo Stilton graphic novel series (fortunately it's a long one).  Yesterday morning, he came to me with an astronomy book that he'd found - aimed at kids, but probably 5/6th grade - and told me all about the cool things he'd learned about, like the life cycle of a star.  He'd put bookmarks in on all the pages that he was excited about.  It's so amazing to see him really discover that reading will broaden his knowledge and expand his horizons.

3 January 2019

Just a memo to myself to remember how Rosebud fell in love with a Christmas song.  The nursery kids were invited to Primary singing time for the month of December, and the singing leader picked Rosebud to hold the 'baby Jesus' baby doll while they sang 'Lullaby'.  Rosebud was so sweet rocking the baby while the other kids sang, and for a couple weeks after she asked for 'Lullaby' at bedtime and talked about how she got to hold the baby Jesus.  Very tender memories.

27 December 2018

Rose Pink gave Rosebud two bottles of pink nail polish for Christmas, and she spent about 45 minutes on a lawn chair on the patio painting her toes and toenails, and fingernails, and Mama's fingernails.  I think she used half of each bottle but she was very happily and industriously engaged.