Finally--a post!

Hi, Everyone! Sorry it's been so long since the last blog post. We've been super busy and I posted this and blogger was being weird so I lost it. We had a great trip to Texas, and thanks to my mom and dad for being such great hosts for a week! We had pie at the Bluebonnet Cafe, awesome carne guisada tacos, fried pies at Atwoods, turkey sausage and brisket from a BBQ place I love in Marble Falls and my parents bought some really good pork ribs and brisket from a place in Austin. We also had lunch at Scholz's Biergarten one day and that was fun and also good (Sammy decided she likes weiner schnitzel!)

All three girls are now settled happily into school and life's back on a schedule.

Random photos from lately:


Claudia before school on the first day. Notice her funky new shoes she got at a boutique in Austin.


Jordan before school on the first day. Notice her cool boots she got in Austin.

No photo of Sammy because unfortunately, we didn't get to see her that morning (she was at her mom's). :(


On the way to Texas. We rented an SUV thinking it would be more comfortable to travel in. Think again! But even though there wasn't much elbow room, the kids were, as usual, FABULOUS travelers.


The girlies plus my parents in the Senate Chamber in the Texas State Capitol. I miss Texas politics--always fun and interesting, especially when compared to the deadly boring politics of the midwest.


Sammy and Claudia doing Wii boxing at my parents' house.


One day when Claudia and Jordan were at their dad's house, we took Sam to Johnson City and Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg is full of little shops and here Sam's playing the banjo in a music shop. We also had some German pastries (there's a large German population there) and Sammy learned a little about the Sunday Houses they have there, and Admiral Chester Nimitz who was from Fredericksburg.

On the way from Fredericksburg back to Austin, we stopped for peach ice cream and in various pastures along the way we saw emus, camels, all kinds of cattle and horses, goats, something that looked like ibeks, and buffalo.


Here she is playing an actual song on the dulcimer. Notice her cute earrings and nail polish!




Sammy outside a log cabin near Johnson City (where LBJ was born and raised and about 30 minutes from where I grew up).


Sammy and Jamie on the porch of LBJ's boyhood home. We took the tour. Notice the light blue paint under the eaves. Some Texas hillcountry homes do that to keep birds, wasps and dirt daubers from building nests.