Texans Now!

Nick had a mostly uneventful trip.  Toby did get sick in the hotel bathroom.  The stuff arrived and then Mom, Sam, Zoey and I hit the road.  My car was packed!!!  The girls did so well on the trip aside from not getting much sleep in the hotel.  Our trip was mostly uneventful as well.  A rock did chip my windshield, but that was minor in the grand scheme of things.  

We were so excited to see the Texas State Line.

We have been super busy.  There are always so many tasks to do when you move.  And we still have some boxes and toys everywhere.  I miss my built ins!  But we like the house (we will definitely be making some changes) and LOVE the location.  We have met some neighbors and found a couple of moms clubs to check out.  We love our colleagues.

  

We have also been playing tourist.  We got city passes.  We did the aquarium first.  It was so tiny and had white tigers (don't get me started).  

The girls loved the sting ray tank.

And they loved the train (which takes you under a shark tank), the carousel, and this frog hopper.

We also did the Natural Science Museum and the kids Museum.  But a highlight was meeting our friends Martin, Sarah, Seb and Luci at the Johnson Space Center.

The Saturn V (unused) was impressive.

Sam and Luci stuck together.  

Zoey felt a little left out, so she hung with Seb, even convincing him to hold her hand.  So sweet.  We were so impressed he would tolerate her bugging him, let alone be so kind to her.  A young gentleman!

This week is packed.  We were all set to go on our last adventure when I realized Toby slipped out of the fence.  Generally the dogs have seemed happier and more playful here.  It is a smaller yard, but with a wooden fence so it seems more isolated.  But Toby evidently wanted more.  He is about 13 years old, has cataracts, hearing loss, and possibly a heart murmur.  We are not far from a major road and he is unpredictable so I was worried for his safety and the safety of anyone near him.  I walked down to the opening in the fences where the bridge to get across the gully behind our house is and around the corner along the major road but did not see him.  I went back home and grabbed my mom, Sam, and Zoey and we drove around, no luck.  I reported him missing to the chip company and posted a craigslist ad.  I decided to try one more time.  When I got to the gully area, I saw him outside our fence.  I tried to get to him and he ran toward the road.  I turned and ran the other way.  He came back.  I called my mom to get them to call from the yard to help him find it.  I finally was able to corner him and get the harness on.  Ugh, what a morning!!!  And tonight I have new adjunct training.  But I did get a small raise, so that was good news.

Next Monday starts our semester(s) and Sam's school.  I am teaching 4 classes at 3 schools and they all start on the same day.  So that is nice.  Nick is teaching his Marshall course as well as his UHCL ones.  So we will be extremely busy this fall.  Wish us luck.  Zoey starts the week after.  Hopefully she will adjust well.  I am a bit nervous, but I will definitely need the kid free time.  My mom leaves after the first week of school, so that will be rough.  But we were super lucky that she has stayed so long.  I cannot imagine getting through this without her.  Thanks for the loan, dad.

It has been a hard transition, but we are trying to make the best of it.  We miss all our friends and loved ones so much.  Our house is a wreck, but please come visit us in Houston.  We can clear a space for you :)

The in between

It has been an extremely hard few weeks, physically and emotionally.  We have finally finished packing and the truck was loaded today.  Our stuff is on the way.  Nick and the dogs will follow in a few days and Mom, the girls and I will go out a few days after delivery to allow Nick to have the beds set up, clean sheets, and toys to play with.  This move has been so hard in so many ways.  We are so sad to leave this amazing city, our wonderful neighbors, our awesome house, and all our incredible friends.  And of course, my parents, who are the best grandparents anyone could have.  We are so blessed to have had these last 3 years close to them.  We owe them so much!

Our friends have also spoiled us with a family picnic and a moms night out to say goodbye.  We unfortunately have not had time for many playdates, so the girls have been mostly stuck in the house or my parents house while we packed and dealt with stuff.  They have been mostly good, but I know it is hard on them.  Zoey does not seem to understand much and keeps asking if a certain item will be moved to Texas.  She even asked once if they had water in Texas.  She has also made up a story about her husband Joseph who lives in Texas and their kids; Cup, Cuppy, Violet, Aurora, and Pep.  Sam understands more and after extreme sadness when school ended, has mostly been more emotional than usual but overall really strong.

The girls were really impressed with the giant truck.

Please wish us luck on 14 hour drive and our adventures in Texas.

Yee-haw!

It has been a super long time since I posted and so much has happened, so time for a quick update.


It has become more and more obvious that USF was not a good fit, so Nick and I applied around this year.  Nick even applied to industry jobs.  He got a great offer at University of Houston - Clear Lake, so we will once again be moving.  It was a hard choice and is bitter sweet.  I think it will be best in the long run, but it is hard to leave my parents, our friends, my moms club, and this amazing city.  We will miss Lakeland terribly.  The current plan is for us to move late July, with Nick going out before I drive my mom and the girls.  We have our house on the market and we found a house to move into.  So we have been swamped with moving related stuff.  We had a very successful garage sale and I have been selling stuff on mom swap.

In other news, we are enjoying our last few weeks here.  The girls did well at swim lessons, but have both made huge strides since.  Sam takes breaths well and Zoey swims to me and back and can dive for toys when you give her a small shove.  Zoey completed her first run in ballet.  Zoey also started a piano program for preschoolers.

Sam really enjoyed her first season of flag football.  She always played hard and gave her all.  She was a very aggressive rusher.  We had one bad game with a coach who did not play fair.  We ended up beating them in the super bowl.  So the first time Sam played and Nick coached, they were super bowl champs!!!!

Another mom and I have been doing photo sessions for the moms club.  She took a few of Zoey and myself.  Zoey was not super cooperative, but I loved this one.

Sam had a lot of end of the year things.  I went for awards day.  She made me so proud!  She got so many awards.  She was even one of only 2 Kindergartners to get all A's and the other girl was not at Lincoln for the first of the year, which is when most kids got B's.  She aced a super hard school.

Here she is on first and last day.  She was so sad for school to end.  She loved her class and her teacher so much and is still sad about the move.  Unfortunately, the card in my dslr malfunctioned, so this was the only last day photo, taken with the point and shoot.

We also were visited by our good friends, Martin and Sarah and their kids, Seb and Luciana.  They actually live outside of Houston, so we are moving about an hour from them.  We actually saw them on a quick house hunting trip, but they had never met Zoey.  The last time we were out there was New Years 2011.

We had a great time hanging out with them.  Their was lego time, pool time, reading time and more.

We also made it to Gatorland.  Zoey wanted nothing to do with the baby gator.

Sam even sat on a big one.

I have never seen birds attack seed sticks so much.  At Zoo Atlanta, they are always overfed and hard to tempt.  Zoey freaked out, but Sam loved it.

The former roommates and their kids.  We are so excited to be close to them!

Wish us luck, send us prayers, etc to help us sell our house, pack, and make the big move.  We know it will be rough.  We are trying to enjoy every drop of Lakeland time, but I am looking forward to when this time is a blur and we cannot believe we have not always lived in Clear Lake.

Happy Easter!

My last update was right after Zoey's birthday, so I have a lot of catching up to do and LOTS of pictures.  We had professional pictures for Zoey's birthday.  A lot of great shots, but here are some favorites.

Nick's Aunt Tracy and Uncle Bruce came through again and stayed with us for a few days.  It was a blast!  The girls adored them.  They were such good sports, reading bedtime stories, playing games, even watching a flag football game.  We hope they will visit again soon!

I took another photography course, a 3 hour one.  So I have been practicing and trying to get better.

Sam has been playing flag football.  Her team has lost only one game.  Nick is the assistant coach.  Sam is a super fast rusher.

Doesn't she look fierce :)

Right after pulling a flag.

My friend (her daughter is on the team, and her husband is the head coach) caught this image.  Zoey plays with her son and wanted him to hold her baby, she yelled across the field.  She also made him sit down to hold the doll.  They both snack their way through the games.  My mom helps a lot in keeping them fed so I can watch and photograph.

Sam made a leprechaun trap for school.  We painted it gold, Nick (and Sam) made a ladder and we made a shelf with gold coins and she glued on a free gold sign.

Sam's Spring School picture.  They got to wear whatever clothes they wanted, but the background was so weird.

The girls tried astronaut ice cream.

We had bunny pictures done.  The last time Zoey was so young and ran away from the bunny.

Story time at the library.

Fluffy stuff.

A bubble playdate.

We also ventured back over to Hobe Sound to meet up with the Woods.  We even let Sam skip a day of school since our Spring Break did not line up and our weekend was so busy that we could not get over there until Sunday.  It was a blast.

Zoey and Charlie mainly stayed on the sand.

Sam and Izzy braved the waves and had a wonderful time.

Sammy the fish!

My sensitive girl watching Frozen.

Sam got a new bike, but it is a little big.  So we, mostly Nick, have been working to get her used to balancing.  Hopefully she will be riding soon.

Zoey has been zooming on the trike and once Sam is on her new bike, she will get the spiderman one.

We have had a few Easter events.  We did an egg hunt at the YMCA.

Sam was also in a live Easter/Resurreciton Eggs performance.  She wrapped Jesus in cloth.

And it was followed by an egg hunt.

 Zoey found a huge pile and picked only 3 eggs.  Maybe she heard you had to count them or maybe she just wanted as many as she is years old.

I hope everyone has an amazing Easter.  Love from the Southern Kellings