Thirteen

It is hard for me to believe, but my baby is now a teenager. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was thirteen years old? Time certainly does fly by quickly!

Jacob got to open birthday presents just two days after Christmas. This is definitely his favorite time of the year!

A whole group of us went to "Dave and Buster's" - a restaurant/arcade - on Jacob's birthday. Adam saved us a ton of money by not playing many video games while there.

Jim and Jacob played lots of games. Notice Pattye in the background raking in some prize tickets herself.

Everyone generously gave Jacob all of their "Dave and Buster's" game tickets so he could trade them in for prizes in the "Winner's Circle" store. He got a t-shirt, a hat, a lamp, a bank, etc. He made out like a bandit! It was a great birthday!

Christmastime

Christmas this year was very merry for our family. On Thursday evening we opened some gifts at my mom's house, then went to the late night service at our church. On Christmas morning, we found full stockings hanging on our mantle, and unwrapped the rest of the presents that were underneath our tree. Irma made dinner for our group of 20 or so in the afternoon, and afterwards we entertained ourselves with another exhilarating game of Taboo - guys vs.girls. (Finally, the girls won! Yay!) Some of us topped off the night by attending a showing of "Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel." Cute movie! Unfortunately, I did not remember to take pictures during any of our holiday festivities this year, even though I did have my camera with me. Tomorrow is Jacob's birthday and we are celebrating at Dave & Buster's, so I will be sure to snap some photos while we are there.

Schussing

We took a mini ski trip to northern Michigan from Sunday to Tuesday this week. Our friend, Tree, and her daughter, Emily, went along with us. Emily had never skied before, and was quite scared to try the sport. She had reiterated for weeks prior to the trip that she absolutely did not want to go, and most definitely did not want to ski. As it turned out, she had nothing to be nervous about because she took to the snow like a natural-born athlete. After making several successful runs down the bunny hill, Emily proclaimed, "Well, I can't say that I hate it!" Before long, the newbie was up the chairlift and schussing down the slopes with an amazing amount of confidence. Hopefully she enjoyed it enough to join us again next time!

Jacob rode up the lift between Adam and Emily. Adam always warns Jacob to give him enough space on the chair, so, in an attempt to appease his brother, Jacob cozied up to lucky Emily instead.

The boys on a scenic trail.

Me in my chic new helmet. It is actually very comfy. And warm.

House for Sale

Our house will officially be on the market beginning Friday evening. The realtor is coming over to take pictures, install a lock box, and have us complete some paperwork. Jim and I have been working our tails off in an attempt to make the place look halfway presentable. I still have some major de-cluttering and dusting to do before the agent arrives, but all in all the house looks ok.

An automotive transport company is also swinging by today to pick up Jim's car. His company is paying to ship the Civic to Texas. And really, they must send it by ship or some other very slow method of transportation, because it will not arrive in Houston until December 30. We are not allowed to keep any personal items in the car, but we are going to be rebellious and put a few things in the trunk. We'll see if they notice.

As far as our saline/chlorine pool issue goes at the Texas house, our realtor has apologized profusely and taken complete responsibility for the error. He alleges that the owners at some point told him that the pool was saltwater, but the sellers claim that they never said any such thing. We found it a bit strange that the homeowners did not question and/or correct our realtor's sales flyer, which clearly stated "SALINE Pool" - yes, in caps like that - but we are not going to worry about it now. (Although we probably could insist that the sellers switch the pool over to saline because it is written in our sales contract as such.) When I questioned our pool guy last week about the likelihood of our exposed pool pipes actually bursting in the event of freezing temps, he admitted that it would take about 5 or 6 hours of below 32 degree weather to damage them. The big problem is apparently not with the pool pump & filter, but rather with the heater, which has smaller copper pipes that are more vulnerable to low temperatures than the larger plastic ones. Fortunately, Houston has had seasonal conditions lately, with lows in the 40s and 50s.

Hip Hop Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Life in Texas

The weather here in Houston has warmed up considerably since our arrival last Friday. The cool temperatures did give the Texans a chance to wear their scarves, hats, and gloves, though. Evidently, they do not have much experience with winter clothing, because they all leave their scarves, hats, and gloves on while inside stores, restaurants, etc. I couldn't believe how many gloved hands I witnessed pushing shopping carts through WalMart, Home Depot, Target, and Lowes the past few days. Odd. Obviously, Jim, Jacob, and I do not consider 50 degrees to be cold, so we have been wearing t-shirts and flip-flops. We assume that everyone here thinks we are freaks. On Tuesday, the temp rose into the upper 70s, so we opened our windows and used our pool. It was wonderful to feel such balmy air outdoors in December!

While in the backyard yesterday, I smelled gas every time I walked near the gas meter. When I put my nose right up to the pipes, I knew that there had to be a leak. I went inside to call the gas company, and realized that I had no idea who supplied the gas to our house. I called Jim and he had to look up the name of the company. Long story short, the gas man was over in about a half hour, found the leak, checked all of our gas lines, repaired the leak, and left.

Our pool guy came over in the evening to give us a crash course in pool maintenance. (I actually took notes.) When I questioned him about the specifics involved with operating a saline pool, he just stared at me blankly. To make another long story short, he assured us that our pool was indeed a chlorine pool and not a saltwater one. Huh? We showed him the sales flyer which clearly stated that the pool was saline, and he was as surprised as we were. We have been in contact with our real estate agent and he, in turn, has been in touch with the sellers. When we get to the bottom of this story, I will post it here!

Someone Messed with Texas

Jim, Jacob, and I arrived in Houston last night. We had heard dire warnings all day about a rare snowstorm ravaging southern Texas. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed to find only a dusting of the white stuff when we pulled into the driveway around 7:30 p.m. To be fair to the forecasters, there was quite a bit more snow south of the city - over 2 and 3 inches in some places. It was definitely cold in our house, though. In fact, the entire Houston area was under a freeze warning. We had to leave our pool filter running all night so the pipes wouldn't ice up and burst - which is something we never thought we would have to think about in our subtropical home. We put on the heat in the house, and fell asleep listening to the hum of all the pool filters in the neighborhood working overtime. The temperatures are supposed to warm back up to normal (65-ish) in the next day or two, and even reach 70 or above on Tuesday. We will enjoy the balmy weather here, then head back to Michigan to frolic in the snow that is predicted to fall there soon.

Jake in the backyard, posing next to a slush-covered chair and a tropical plant.

As soon as we arrived at our house, I rushed to check on my banana tree. It had a bit of snow on it, but seemed ok otherwise.

This morning the banana tree was droopy and brownish. Curse those below-freezing temperatures!

WOW and a Party

Our internet, television, and phone did not work for eleven hours today! Once again I question the value of our WOW (Wide Open West, our service provider) "bundle" package. When everything is operating fine, it seems like a great deal. But when WOW experiences an interruption of service, everything goes out and I suffer from serious computer and tv withdrawal. Luckily, I had plenty of cleaning and packing chores to keep me occupied today, so things weren't as bad as they have been during past WOW outages. I just hope the internet stays on long enough for me to get this posted!

We held our November family birthday party on Sunday. Along with Adam and Nancy, who share a November 30 birth date, we also celebrated Ash's recent birthday. Ash is Jason's girlfriend who conveniently flew to town from her California home just in time to join us for the bash. On Monday, we met Adam and Nancy at the Outback for dinner. After eating, Adam came by the house to open his presents. Unfortunately for him, he has some lengthy homework assignments, several end-of-the-semester projects, and numerous grad school applications to fill out over the next few weeks. That ought to keep him off the streets for a while anyway.

Adam and his pile o' gifts.