updates...

Good morning!

Started back to work this week, working from our little place, which is actually quite okay, good distribution of space for the most part.  A very quiet neighborhood (cars all park in garages that face the alley, I've only been thru the front door once).. So we really haven't met any of the neighbors.

Kids went to camp for the first time in their new town... they were supposed to be going to the same one.. kind of like Vikes camp and Victoria Gymnastics camp, but way better.  They do one field trip a day for the 6+ year olds.. yesterday was ice skating, which Zoe loved.  Today she is off to the pool (it has 3 waterslides, giant lily pads you jump across, floating things to climb on).  Yesterday when I picked up Zoe, she told me, "Mom, I'm quite popular!  A bunch of people always want to sit next to me."

 Finn ended up going to a different camp, on the other side of town, to the Children's museum where he is doing Super Hero Camp.  We had to pick the kids up early and he told me that he had to stay for the whole day next time.

Yesterday was pretty much the last on our urgent, ugly, must do list (other than schools/buy house).. we had to take the rental truck back to Houston.. its a 90 minute drive, each way... beautiful country highways (75mph) until you hit Houston, where there are tolls and heavy traffic, crazy on and off ramps 5 stories or more off the ground.. we left about 3:30 and got home around 9:30.. but that included a reward of shopping at the Loft and Ann Taylor in the outlet shopping center outside Houston.  We had tried to just drop the car off at Enterprise in College Station, but they wanted to double our bill ($750).

And I forgot to tell you about Saturday.. we received all of our house belongings which barely fit in three cooled 10x10ft storage units.. we took a bunch of the kitchen stuff to the rental, I've unpacked 4 boxes.. found the blender base.. but not the pitcher.. stuff like that.  The kids have already made houses out of three of the boxes.   Finn was excited to have the popcorn popper back.  We watched them unload the truck from 9am to 3:30pm in 85 degree heat with 89% humidity, having to constantly wait for the elevator to get the stuff up to the second floor.  If we had been lucky, and had the first floor, it would have taken about 3 hours. Luckily, the storage unit was cooled so there were breaks in the heat.  And even more luckily, our new friend picked up the kids and kept them at her house with her 4 kids so the kids didn't have to endure the process.

We also found the reason for the huge deal at the border.  When the truck crossed the border, actually, right before it reached the border, it was stopped and surrounded by tons of armed folks with guns, and our driver was taken to a cell.  Turns out they found a radioactive element in our load.. They were able to pinpoint it to a particular box.  Based on conversations with the driver, we guessed it was either the rocks from the greenhouse or my jewelry making rocks.. turns out it was a box of my jewelry rocks.. We figured this out because guys at customs repacked the truck and just shoved the rock box in without retaping it.

I found a professor on campus in geology with a Geiger counter and he is also a rock collector and he said he'd look over my "weakly radioactive rocks".. his term.  We're meeting tomorrow.

And Finn's quote of the week:

F: Mom, do you love me or Zoe more?

M:   I love both of you.

F: Yes, but who do you love more.

M: I love you both.  I can't pick who I love more

F: Then I'll pick for you, me!

well.. I probably ought to get some work done today.

Lots of love to you all,

Amy